Climate Change: Core Climate Solutions, Greenland Ice Loss, CO Forest Health

Climate Progress has a Core Climate Solution Primer.  Recommended reading.

The rate at which Greenland’s ice sheets are losing mass has dramatically increased compared to rates in the 20th century, according to a new Geophysical Research Letters article.  From the abstract:

We find that the ice sheet was losing 110 ± 70 Gt/yr in the 1960s, 30 ± 50 Gt/yr or near balance in the 1970s–1980s, and 97 ± 47 Gt/yr in 1996 increasing rapidly to 267 ± 38 Gt/yr in 2007.

The 2007 number is just astounding.  Quantifying it is important for other research.

Gov. Bill Ritter has sent a letter to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service requesting a larger portion of an upcoming federal allotment of forest health funding.  Citing Colorado’s ongoing drought and recent record fire years coupled with an expected explosion of human-forest interfaces in the next 20 years, Ritter made the argument that the current average of $6 million per year in funding wasn’t sufficient.  From his letter:

Regional Forester Rick Cables estimated the costs of addressing these concerns on national forests to be nearly $40 million dollars in fiscal year 2009 alone – a calculation that does not include any support to address equally critical needs on state and private lands.

More below.

Beetle Killed Trees May Be Allowed to Burn

If any fires that burn in beetle ravaged forests get bad enough, the U.S. Forest Service will consider giving up acreage and hopefully keep firefighters safe. Here are some of the problems fire crews could face:

Thick beds of pine needles, fallen timber and weakened trees create great risks, officials say. Fallen timber makes getting in and out of an area difficult. Hotter fires can spread quickly among tree crowns. And falling trees pose a risk.

Importantly:

Decisions on how to fight fires are always made on a case-by-case basis depending on factors such as weather and the fires’ proximity to developed areas, fire officials said.

The reason I highlighted part of that sentence is that some of the responses to the article on the Post’s site unfairly attack liberals and the Forest Service. It’s not surprising those comments are there. After all, conservatives make a habit of criticizing without offering their own solutions. Now on to the meatier side of this issue.

First off, you can find a map of affected areas at Colorado State University’s Forest Service website. Areas affected primarily by mountain pine beetles are displayed by themselves on the second map.

A spokesperson for the Forest Service’s pine bark beetle incident management team duly notes that the beetles took 10 years to affect one million acres. In the 11th year, half that number was affected. That is a sign that the system shifted in a radical, meaningful way. As a nonlinear system, these kinds of quick shifts are to be expected, and more shifts like them are likely in store for it in the future. We continue to force the climate system and the system is showing sign after sign that the forcing is having an effect. Add in a century of less-than-optimal forest management, and it’s obvious that the West of the 21st century has been dealt a bad hand that must be dealt with responsibly.