(2 of 3) – $60 TRILLION Arctic ‘Time Bomb’

Via: Huffington Post

A release of methane in the  Arctic could speed the melting of sea ice and climate change  with a cost to the global economy of up to $60 trillion over  coming decades, according to a paper published in the journal  Nature.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Erasmus  University in the Netherlands used economic modelling to  calculate the consequences of a release of a 50-gigatonne  (55,115,565,546 tons) reservoir of methane from thawing permafrost under the East  Siberian Sea.

They examined a scenario in which there is a release of  methane over a decade as global temperatures rise at their  current pace.

They also looked at lower and slower releases, yet all  produced “steep” economic costs stemming from physical changes  to the Arctic.

“The global impact of a warming Arctic is an economic  time-bomb,” said Gail Whiteman, an author of the report and  professor of sustainability, management and climate change at  the Rotterdam School of Management, part of Erasmus University.

“In the absence of climate-change mitigation measures, the  model calculates that it would increase mean global climate  impacts by $60 trillion,” said Chris Hope, a reader in policy  modelling at the Cambridge Judge Business School, part of the  University of Cambridge.

That approaches the value of the global economy, which was  around $70 trillion last year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/arctic-methane-climate-change_n_3643917.html

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