Researchers Regenerate 400-Year-Old Frozen Plants 77
Several readers sent word of a group of University of Alberta researchers, who were exploring the edge of the Teardrop Glacier in northern Canada when they noticed a 'greenish tint' coming out from underneath the glacier. It turned out to be a collection of bryophytes, which likely flourished there the last time the land in that area was exposed to sunlight before the Little Ice Age. They collected samples of plants estimated to be 400 years old, and the researchers were able to get them to sprout new growths in the lab (abstract).
"The glaciers in the region have been receding at rates that have sharply accelerated since 2004, at about 3-4m per year. ... Bryophytes are different from the land plants that we know best, in that they do not have vascular tissue that helps pump fluids around different parts of the organism. They can survive being completely desiccated in long Arctic winters, returning to growth in warmer times, but Dr La Farge was surprised by an emergence of bryophytes that had been buried under ice for so long. 'When we looked at them in detail and brought them to the lab, I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green lateral branches, and that said to me that these guys are regenerating in the field, and that blew my mind.'"
Can we attrib this to carbon pollution? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Global Warming is good for something. (Score:4, Insightful)
Global warming is a very good thing. It is a heck of a lot better than the alternative. We are coming out of a cold period. Cold is bad. Warm is good. During the warming periods is when biodiversity has exploded and life has bloomed. It is during the cold periods that we've gotten the worst of the great extinctions.
The problem is that people are used to the very recent planetary temperature setting and built their cities down too close to the ocean. The oceans have gone up and down over time. Now they're rising again and the big cities which have too many people in them are going to suffer. This is unfortunate but that is how normal climate change operates.
The real problem is not climate change. Climate change is normal. The Earth has been much warmer and much colder in the past. The real problem is toxic pollution that mankind is spewing into the environment, untested genomes that are being spilled into nature (GMOs) and all the waste. Global warming is just a distraction. Things like Earth Day, Carbon Credits and cloth shopping bags are just feel good measures that fail to address the real issues while letting people get a false sense that they have done something to 'save the world' when in reality they've done nothing.
Focus.
Re:Can we attrib this to carbon pollution? (Score:2, Insightful)
The answer depends on politics!
No it doesn't