BEFORE; DRILL BABY DRILL
By Emily Mae Czachor
December 10, 2024 / CBS News
Foreboding environmental milestones abounded again this year in the Arctic, where experts say dramatic climate shifts are fundamentally altering the ecosystem and how it operates. One recent turning point for the region involves its carbon footprint: Where conditions in the Arctic historically worked to reduce global emissions, they're now actively contributing to them.
That's a major transition that could reap consequences on human, plant and animal life far beyond Earth's northernmost arena, warned a cohort of scientists whose research appears in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2024 Arctic Report Card, published Tuesday. The report is an annual assessment of the polar environment, which in recent years has become a stark alert signal marked by unprecedented and ominous observations all linked to rising temperatures from human-caused climate change.
A focus of the latest Arctic evaluation was the effects of warmer weather and wildfires on the tundra, a far-northern biome that's typically known for extreme cold, little precipitation and a layer of permanently frozen soil, called permafrost, covering the land. Those traits collectively made the Arctic an important carbon sink for millennia, meaning the region essentially helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions worldwide by absorbing more carbon than it emitted into the atmosphere.
That has mainly been due to carbon uptake from plants, which regulate atmospheric levels of the molecule through photosynthesis, and a storage process in the permafrost, which traps carbon dioxide in the ground. But warming air temperatures in the Arctic are breaking down permafrost across the tundra, in some cases, severely. The Arctic report, for example, showed Alaskan permafrost temperatures in 2024 were the second-warmest ever recorded. That causes the soil to heat up and thaw, its carbon repositories decompose along with it
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When including the impact of increased wildfire activity, the Arctic tundra region has shifted from storing carbon in the soil to becoming a carbon dioxide source.NOAA
Research included in NOAA's Arctic report shows carbon once stored in the tundra's permafrost is actually being released into the atmosphere. In parts of the region, it's happening at a rate that outweighs the carbon sink and instead creates a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions — something of particular concern to climate scientists at a time when pollution from fossil fuel production has already reached a record high.
The same fossil fuels overwhelming the atmosphere and prompting ongoing admonition from top weather and climate officials at the United Nations are fueling the emissions in the Arctic, said Rich Spinrad, the administrator of NOAA, in a statement on the new report's findings.
"Our observations now show that the Arctic tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon than it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts," Spinrad said. "This is yet one more sign, predicted by scientists, of the consequences of inadequately reducing fossil fuel pollution."
Wildfires in the Arctic have been raging at rates never seen before, and that alone drives up carbon emissions. Researchers suggest 2024 had the second-highest annual volume of wildfire emissions north of the Arctic Circle on record. Coupled with the release of carbon dioxide and methane gas from permafrost stores, they say net emissions could continue to increase in the place that climate change is heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet.
Research included in NOAA's Arctic report shows carbon once stored in the tundra's permafrost is actually being released into the atmosphere. In parts of the region, it's happening at a rate that outweighs the carbon sink and instead creates a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions — something of particular concern to climate scientists at a time when pollution from fossil fuel production has already reached a record high.
The same fossil fuels overwhelming the atmosphere and prompting ongoing admonition from top weather and climate officials at the United Nations are fueling the emissions in the Arctic, said Rich Spinrad, the administrator of NOAA, in a statement on the new report's findings.
"Our observations now show that the Arctic tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon than it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts," Spinrad said. "This is yet one more sign, predicted by scientists, of the consequences of inadequately reducing fossil fuel pollution."
Wildfires in the Arctic have been raging at rates never seen before, and that alone drives up carbon emissions. Researchers suggest 2024 had the second-highest annual volume of wildfire emissions north of the Arctic Circle on record. Coupled with the release of carbon dioxide and methane gas from permafrost stores, they say net emissions could continue to increase in the place that climate change is heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet.
Biden administration approves project to limit Trump-era oil and gas lease mandate in Alaska
The lease sale is scheduled for Jan. 9
Environmentalist weighs in on Trump’s plan for energy, climate action
The Biden administration is narrowing the scope of oil and gas leases mandated during the Trump era before the former president assumes office for a second term.
When President-elect Trump first occupied the Oval Office in 2017, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which required at least two oil and gas drilling lease sales in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by December 2024.
Just weeks after Trump won the 2024 election, the Biden administration announced plans to move forward with an oil and gas lease in the region – with the limited lease amount required under the Trump-era law.
Trump auctioned off the first round of leases in 2021, but most were canceled by the Biden administration after he took office.
President Biden speaks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (Ron Sachs / Getty Images)
With the 2024 deadline looming, the Biden administration suggested leasing the smallest amount of land required under the law.
The Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a memo on the project, offering four alternatives for the second lease, but announced on Monday they would be moving forward with the minimum 400,000 acres within the northwest portion of the program area.
The lease territory has been designed to exclude regions critical for polar bear denning and the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. The lease sale is expected to take place on Jan. 9, 2025.
Caribou gather in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is about the size of South Carolina, in Alaska on June 28, 2024. (Carolyn Van Houten / Getty Images)
Biden faced backlash from environmental groups for proceeding with the lease sale.
"Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is all risk with no reward," Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe, who has led litigation to protect the refuge, said in a statement. "Oil drilling would destroy this beautiful land, held sacred by Gwich’in people, and would further destabilize the global climate, but it offers zero benefit to taxpayers or consumers."
The Biden administration also previously faced criticism for canceling the leases purchased by the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority (AIDEA) in the waning days of the Trump administration.
Oil drilling has been going on around Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, since the mid-1970s and could provide a glimpse of what parts of the coastal plain might look to the west if the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is opened to exploration.
The lease sale is scheduled for Jan. 9
Environmentalist weighs in on Trump’s plan for energy, climate action
The Biden administration is narrowing the scope of oil and gas leases mandated during the Trump era before the former president assumes office for a second term.
When President-elect Trump first occupied the Oval Office in 2017, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which required at least two oil and gas drilling lease sales in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by December 2024.
Just weeks after Trump won the 2024 election, the Biden administration announced plans to move forward with an oil and gas lease in the region – with the limited lease amount required under the Trump-era law.
Trump auctioned off the first round of leases in 2021, but most were canceled by the Biden administration after he took office.
President Biden speaks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (Ron Sachs / Getty Images)
With the 2024 deadline looming, the Biden administration suggested leasing the smallest amount of land required under the law.
The Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a memo on the project, offering four alternatives for the second lease, but announced on Monday they would be moving forward with the minimum 400,000 acres within the northwest portion of the program area.
The lease territory has been designed to exclude regions critical for polar bear denning and the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd. The lease sale is expected to take place on Jan. 9, 2025.
Caribou gather in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is about the size of South Carolina, in Alaska on June 28, 2024. (Carolyn Van Houten / Getty Images)
Biden faced backlash from environmental groups for proceeding with the lease sale.
"Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is all risk with no reward," Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe, who has led litigation to protect the refuge, said in a statement. "Oil drilling would destroy this beautiful land, held sacred by Gwich’in people, and would further destabilize the global climate, but it offers zero benefit to taxpayers or consumers."
The Biden administration also previously faced criticism for canceling the leases purchased by the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority (AIDEA) in the waning days of the Trump administration.
Oil drilling has been going on around Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, since the mid-1970s and could provide a glimpse of what parts of the coastal plain might look to the west if the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is opened to exploration.
(Scott Canon/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via / Getty Images)
AIDEA communications director Josie Wells said much of the population of Kaktovik, a remote community on Barter Island to the east of Prudhoe Bay, was in favor of AIDEA's lease purchase there.
"That local community is very much going to be impacted," Wells said. "And what's interesting is that some of the folks that are against the project don't live in the area. They are not anywhere near that area."
Brandon Brefczynski, another AIDEA official, characterized the cancellation as "pulling the rug out from under us."
Fox News' Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
AIDEA communications director Josie Wells said much of the population of Kaktovik, a remote community on Barter Island to the east of Prudhoe Bay, was in favor of AIDEA's lease purchase there.
"That local community is very much going to be impacted," Wells said. "And what's interesting is that some of the folks that are against the project don't live in the area. They are not anywhere near that area."
Brandon Brefczynski, another AIDEA official, characterized the cancellation as "pulling the rug out from under us."
Fox News' Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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