Flyby News Home - Flyby News Archives - Casinni NoFlyby - Flyby Links

Flyby  News

"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"




911Truth * MostCensored * PermafrostCO2


17 September 2006

"9/11 Truth is a very important issue with the power
to bring lasting change to our country."


-- William Sloane Coffin

1) 9/11 Truth Movement Approaches Critical Mass
- - 911Truth.org 5th anniversary Newsletter
- - BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
- - 9-11-06 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
- - 9/11 Victim Families ‘Say Case Merits New Investigation’
- - 911 TRUTH DVD PROJECT
2) Top 25 Most Censored Stories from Project Censored
3) Greenhouse Gas Bubbling From Melting Permafrost Feeds Climate Warming


Editor's Notes:


It has been more than 3 weeks since the last issue of Flyby News, challenged by computer malfunctions, car repairs, distributing Green Living Journal, and powerful events with the Western Mass 9/11 Truth Alliance. This is a wild time for independent news. This past September 11 will remain a day remembered for freedom of speech, and the turnaround for a remaining integrity to stand up and question the status quo. In the academic world of Brigham Young University, physicist, Dr. Steven Jones was placed 'on paid leave’ while BYU "reviews his involvement in the so-called '9/11 truth movement' that accuses unnamed government agencies of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center."' In this voodoo science world where buildings suddenly implode for questionable reasons, no accountability for the destruction of evidence at the scene of a crime, why, of course, investigate Dr. Steven Jones! Yet increasing numbers of people are awakening to demand real investigations; and what is this thing about endless war? To help the grassroots distribute DVD's that document the questions in a way that help deprogram viewers, hypnotized by mainstream media's projections, Tom Tvedten, MD is making seven excellent DVD films available for everyone. The second item is on Project Censored top 25 awards to under-publicized news articles. Top on their list is: “Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media.” The third item is on the exponential increase of the release of carbon atoms contributing to global warming. Meanwhile, the Maine Technology Institute rejected ReGen Power Systems grant proposal for a ‘a low temperature Stirling power system to convert excess process heat and steam energy at industrial plants into electricity.’

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will become accustomed to believing it.


- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things
over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,
to kind of catapult the propaganda.


- George W. Bush
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In response to 9/11 Investigation Cover-up and
the lies perpetrated by the Bush administration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Western Mass 9/11 Truth Alliance
will be participating in two public film events:

On Tuesday, October 10th in Amherst, MA,
9/11 Press for Truth,
a film about the 9/11 victim families will be presented
by its screen writer, Kyle Hence at Hampshire College,
Franklin Patterson Main Lecture Hall; 7:00 pm
&
Thursday, October 19th, 7pm at the Media Education Foundation
The 9/11 Truth Alliance will be presenting a new film called:
911 Mysteries

Part 1: Demolitions


Western Mass 9/11 Truth Alliance
will be holding meetings; 7 to 9 pm
October... 19 (Thursday)- Media Education Foundation
November 16 (Thursday)- Media Education Foundation
December 14 (Thursday)- Media Education Foundation

Many meetings will include screening films that provide visual
and scientific evidence that the towers were more likely brought
down by controlled demolition (including building # 7, untouched
by the airplanes). For an excellent introductory film on 9/11/01,
Other 9/11 recommended films:

Loose Change

And another excellent film documentary:
"Confronting the Evidence:
A Call to Reopen the 911 Investigation."

- Order a Free DVD -
Reopen911.org


<><><><><><><><><>

Tom Tvedten recently posted a new site - 911dvdProject.com
He has created this site so that anyone that wants to order 9/11
related DVDs can go to this site, make a selection from their list
of titles, and by following the instructions order what one wishes.
They are asking for a small donation to made after the person
requesting the DVDs receives them in the mail, but will send them
for free if the person can't afford even the recommended donation.

9/11 DVD Project

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

For more resources to get the truth out, see:

Films that Make a Difference!



1) 9/11 Truth Movement Approaches Critical Mass

- - 911Truth.org 5th anniversary Newsletter
- - BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
- - 9-11-06 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
- - 9/11 Victim Families ‘Say Case Merits New Investigation’
- - 911 TRUTH DVD PROJECT

- - 911Truth.org 5th anniversary Newsletter

1. Press Release
2. BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
3. 9-11-06 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
4. TAKE ACTION

Five Years On, 9/11 Truth Movement Reaches Critical Mass

- Near Majority Support, Powerful New Tools, and Energized Activism
Promise Endgame Soon

September 11, 2006 (PRWEB) -- The year leading up to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks has been marked by an unprecedented upsurge in public mistrust of the official story portrayed in the 9/11 Commission Report. Respected national polling firms Zogby and Scripps Howard have shown that less than half the public believes in the conclusions or integrity of the 9/11 Commission, and 36% of Americans now think the administration was actively complicit in the attacks to advance its preplanned Mideast war agenda.

This outburst of popular skepticism has come in spite of five years of lockstep support for the official 9/11 narrative by the national press, broadcast media, and both major political parties. The mounting distrust spans the political, religious and ethnic spectrums, and has been largely driven by compelling new films, books, whistleblower reports, and escalating grassroots activism. Collectively these resources and constituencies not only offer the country hope for a fresh and truly honest 9/11 probe, but also a potent new base for radical political reform.

Activating the Newly Awakened

To mobilize the 70+ million voting age 9/11 skeptics identified by Zogby,911truth.org has organized "Politics 911," a national effort to identify congressional candidates who would demand an honorable new 9/11 inquiry and then help generate support for their election. This campaign has started polling candidates nationwide and is currently
recruiting grassroots poll volunteers at www.911truthgroups.org/911Truth. Early progress includes 9/11 truth advocate Dr. Robert Bowman's lopsided Democratic primary victory on September 5th in Florida's 15th Congressional District.

New and Old Tools for Enlightenment

The truth movement is currently blessed with an extraordinary array of new films and books that deconstruct the official story with meticulous research, passion and clarity. Among the latest crop, 911truth.org particularly recommends:

"9/11: Press for Truth" -- a stunning new documentary based on Paul Thompson's "Terror Timeline" and the story of the "Jersey Girls" who lobbied the 9/11 Commission into existence and still feel betrayed by the cover-up it spawned.

"9/11 and American Empire: American Intellectuals Speak Out" and "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11:A Call to Reflection and Action" by Dr. David Ray Griffin et al. that smartly introduce the 9/11 truth conversation to influential new constituencies.

"Towers of Deception-- The Media Cover-up of 9-11" by Canadian media scholar Barrie Zwicker that thoroughly dissects corporate media complicity in the suppression of inconvenient 9/11 truths.

There are many more powerful works now available at 911truth.org and more are on the way. In the meantime, it is useful to remember some of the most basic questions that the corporate media still refuse to ask and a new 9/11 inquiry must confront

--Why do 70% of the victim families' questions remain unanswered to this day, questions that the Commission initially promised would become the investigation's "road map"?

--Why has the FBI gone to such lengths to cover up its passive unto hostile response to terrorist investigations prior to September 11? Why did it promote the officials who quashed these investigations while gagging agents who claim to have vital information the public still needs to know?

--Why did the 9/11 Commission steer its investigation away from virtually indisputable evidence for government complicity in the 9/11 attacks? And why hasn't the corporate media followed up on this story?

--Why were dozens of intelligence experts "turned away,silenced or censored" by the 9/11 Commission, according to the National Security Whistleblowers Association, so that not a single meaningful word from any of their testimony made it into the final report?

--Who ordered the half dozen aerial war games that were going on during the 9/11 attacks? Who commanded and controlled them, and why has the media never questioned this bizarre coincidence?

--Why has the 9/11 Commission sealed its private hearing and interview records until January 2009? How can anyone assess its integrity or performance without any of this material?

--Why were NORAD officials permitted to repeatedly lie about our military response that morning without ever facing reprimand or censure, let alone courts martial?

911truth.org executive director Janice Matthews thoughtfully welcomes the new stage the movement has reached. "The forces aligned against 9/11 truth have moved in recent months from disregard and ridicule to mass media damage control and openly hostile attacks. While this is a certain sign of progress, citizens should be alert to the ubiquitous strawman tactics now employed by official story flacks to defame our movement and re-marginalize 9/11 truth.

2. BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
while the White House Issues Veiled Threat To Dissenters


Many of you are aware of the plight of Steven Jones (click for full story here)],who was placed on paid leave last week while BYU "reviews his involvement in the so-called '9/11 truth movement' that accuses unnamed government agencies of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center." This situation comes on the heels of similar actions taken against two other professors -- Kevin Barrett at University of Wisconsin-Madison and William Woodward at the University of New Hampshire. While both of these individuals' academic freedoms have been (begrudgingly) supported by their universities, Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislators are threatening university funding cuts.

Dr. Woodward has succinctly asked the critical question at issue: "Are we going to continue to have tenure and protection of free speech, or are we going to have politicians deciding what is acceptable to teach our children?"

At stake in this situation is not really whether professors can teach 'alternative 9/11 theories.' The deeper issues are constitutional -- are Americans allowed to question the government at all? A particularly Orwellian position paper released this month by the White House, the "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism," offers us a clear picture of our government's answer to this question:

"The terrorism we confront today springs from . .. [s]ubcultures of conspiracy and misinformation. Terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda. . . In place of a culture of conspiracy and misinformation, democracy offers freedom of speech, independent media, and the marketplace of ideas, which can expose and discredit falsehoods, prejudices, and dishonest propaganda."

It's not very difficult to see that with this disgraceful attempt to link terrorism to the free expression of ideas, the US government is aiming to foment an environment in which it may criminalize those who disagree with the government. The Orwellian architects of this dizzying statement obviously want nothing of "freedom of speech, independent media, and the marketplace of ideas" when powerful alternative views gain purchase. They are in full denial over the fact that it is US policy, and not the free expression of ideas, which produces terrorism. The battle facing these three professors may be a harbinger of things to come, and we urge everyone to support them as fully as possible.

Contact information for the departments at BYU involved in Dr. Jones' "review" follows:

Dr. Cecil O. Samuelson, President, Brigham Young University
Email can be sent through contact form at
http://unicomm.byu.edu/president/feedback.aspx
Letters to: Brigham Young University,Provo, UT 84602

Dr. Earl M. Woolley
Dean, College of Physical and Mathematical Science
N181B ESC
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
earl_woolley@byu.edu (earl_woolley)

Dr. Scott Sommerfeldt
Department Chair
BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy
N283 ESC
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
physics_office@byu.edu (physics_office)

Dr. Alan R. Parkinson
Dean, College of Engineering and Technology
270 CB
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
Parkinson@byu.edu

- - - - - - - - -

FN Note: I have just read and signed the petition on this issue of Steven Jones being invesigated.
Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition.
It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. Please sign here: thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/525834923

3. 9-11-06 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION

Be encouraged! On Monday, thousands and thousands of people around the world gathered to acknowledge the 5thanniversary of 9/11 by continuing to demand the truth, with justice for all the victims of that event, through video showings, speakers, protests, music, art, and gathering with like-minded truthseekers for encouragement and strength. Our website received nearly 97,000 page loads on that day alone, in spite of the media's recently increased dismissive tone of our efforts, and the massive redirection of focus, away from the truth and toward shifting the blame, caused by ABC's showing of Path to 9/11. Many of you wrote letters to the media, demanding they tell the truth this year.

We posted 26 events at the Global Day of Action page, and will be adding reports, photos, and video of these events in the next couple of days, as they continue to pour in to webmaster@911truth.org (please send us yours, too!).

4. TAKE ACTION - politics911@911truth.org

Politics911 is well underway, and we need your help!! Following are the details. Please forward this action plan far and wide, and get busy - elections are only weeks away!

The Goal: Every candidate for federal office this year is asked to go "on the record" regarding 9/11 and a new investigation by responding to a questionnaire delivered by his/her constituents. We are finding a few out there willing to actually represent the nearly 50% of their constituents who want a new investigation - are your state's candidates among those? Time to put the "Represent" back in Representative!!


"Politics 911" is a fast, focused, grassroots polling/public education campaign to make 9/11 truth visible throughout the 2006 political season, audible in the election debates, and important enough to demand a stated position from every Congressional candidate.

Specifically, we need your help to poll every congressional candidate in the country on their understanding of 9/11 truth, its relation to current domestic & foreign crises, and their support for an independent new inquiry. The campaign will then highlight promising 9/11 truth supporters and try to promote their election.

We obviously cannot do this without a lot people taking part –in groups or individually, but there are now over 12,000 "Justice for 9/11" signers and only about 1,200 candidates, so this is certainly doable if you help.

Helping with this historic initiative can be both easy and fun-- often rare attributes in grassroots 9/11 land -- and have an enormous lasting impact to boot.

All you have to do is:

a) Read through all the campaign info at http://tinyurl.com/ejfqy

b) Choose the other people you would like to work with in your group
or area.

Note: Anyone with a little care and intelligence can brief and poll a candidate as a single individual. It is often just a lot more interesting and effective if several or more people collaborate to game plan their approaches to specific candidates and maximize the impact of the survey's message both upon the candidate's staff and the surrounding ommunity. Bird-dogging (questioning candidates openly at public events) also ideally requires at least three persons – a questioner, a videographer and someone recording sound to preserve and share a record of their responses.

c) Register as a user at www.911truthgroups.org/911Truth

d) Choose a role (poller, bird-dogger, tactician, etc.) and the candidate campaign(s) you will focus on.

e) Deliver 9/11 truth literature to each campaign (see "Politics 911" Briefing Resources), poll the candidate(s), report back the results at the website above, and post links to your audio or video files if bird-dogging was involved.

Note: You can also submit responses by snail mail to 911 Truth, PO Box 5407, Woodridge, IL 60517 or by fax to 630-971-0500.

f) Last and most important, help 9/11-friendly candidates in your region and beyond in any way you can.

------------------------

If you have any questions, please direct them to politics911@911truth.org

As always, we thank you all for your continuing, powerful efforts.

The 911Truth.org Steering Committee

Janice Matthews, Executive Director, 816-444-3249, Kansas City, MO,
janice@911truth.org

Mike Berger, Media Coordinator, 314-308-4893, St. Louis, MO,
mike@911truth.org

Gabriel Day, Outreach & Networking Coordinator,
831-325-3135, Santa Cruz, CA gabriel@911truth.org

David Kubiak, International Campaign Advisor, 207-332-3071, San
Francisco, CA, david@911truth.org

Erik Larson, Volunteer Coordinator, Los Angeles, CA,
erik@911truth.org

Bryan Sacks, Research/Editor, 267-228-0136, Philadelphia, PA,
bryan@911truth.org

Michael Wolsey, Rocky Mountain Program Coordinator, 970-576-6431,
Greeley, CO, michael@911truth.org

911Truth.org <> The 9/11 Truth Movement <> Campaign to Expose the Truth of 9/11 <> 911truth.org

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

- - 9/11 Victim Families ‘Say Case Merits New Investigation’

Most Family Steering Committee Questions Unanswered
or Inadequately Addressed by 9/11 Commission

For more information, see: www.911pressfortruth.com/news

*Contact*:
Kyle F. Hence
401-935-7715
kylehence@earthlink.net
911PressforTruth.com

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

- - 911 TRUTH DVD PROJECT

911dvdProject.com is a web site to advance and promote the truth about what happened on 9/11/01. We have found through experience that videos are a great way to spark interest in the truth about what really happened on 9/11/01. Therefore, the particular mission of the 911dvdproject is to help spread understanding of events on that day through the distribution of DVDs that educate the viewer about the many still unanswered questions and little known facts that remain concerning 9/11.

These are the DVDs currently offered:

A. Loose Change-Second Ed.

B. Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime-First Ed.

C. What’s the Truth?

D. Who Killed John O’Neill?

E. Terror Storm

F. Confronting the Evidence

G. BYU Professor Steven Jones presents a case for controlled demolition of WTC 1,2 & 7 at Utah Valley State College February 6, 2006

Some of these videos can be downloaded at 911files.net

E-mail your order to: order911dvds@yahoo.com

To place an order, send an e-mail to order911dvds@yahoo.com. Include the name and quantity of the DVDs that are being ordered, and of course the shipping address to which the DVDs should be sent. Any combination of DVDs is acceptable in an order. Repeat orders are encouraged since it is important to spread this information as far and as wide as possible. It may take two or three weeks to fill your order. If you wish you may send the DVDs back for redistribution even after watching them. Please pass as many discs around as you can.

We have given the courageous and patriotic producers of these films the assurance that we will not sell their works for profit. Because of postage and material costs, we actually operate at a loss. We ask that those that use our service not ask any more for the DVDs than they donated for them.

If someone truly can not afford to donate the small amount that we recommend for the DVDs, we are glad to give them away, but if too many folks don’t donate, we will not be able to replenish the discs and be forced to shut down the service.

We ask that the minimum number of DVDs per order be 5 and the maximum number be 50.

*We do not necessarily endorse every single statement made in these DVDs but agree with the general thrust of each of them. We hope that the DVDs will stimulate you to do further research into the events of that day and are sure that if you do, you will agree with us in the 9/11 Truth movement that a thorough and above board criminal investigation into what really happened that day is necessary. The American people deserve the truth; it is our patriotic duty to Demand 9/11 TRUTH!

911dvdProject.com

For more resources to get the truth out, see:

Films that Make a Difference!


and for excellent archive article resources, see:

Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.



2) Top 25 Most Censored Stories from Project Censored

Project Censored Announces the Release of
the Top 25 Most Censored Stories for 2005-06

For thirty years Project Censored at Sonoma State University has been reporting the real news that corporate media refuses to cover. The 250 student researchers and faculty find cutting-edge news stories that go under-reported in the mainstream corporate media. Real news is not there for the selling of material goods or entertainment. Real news can only be measured through its success in building democracy, stimulating grassroots activism, and motivating resistance to top-down institutions. Democratic activism underlies the purpose, reason, and message of free speech. Here again is Project Censored's release of the news that didn't make the news--a compilation of the best examples of journalism that the corporate media marginalized in 2005-06.

Full reviews of the stories are published in Censored 2007: 30th Anniversary Edition from Seven Stories Press, available at: ProjectCensored.org

1. Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
Throughout 2005 and 2006, a large underground debate raged regarding the future of the Internet. Referred to as "network neutrality," the issue has become a tug of war with cable companies on the one hand and consumers and Internet service providers on the other.

2. Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
As recently as January of 2005 and a decade before Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company in violations of US sanctions.

3. Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices intertwine to imperil the world's largest communal life source.

4. Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
The number of hungry and homeless people in US cities continued to grow in 2005.

5. High-Tech Genocide in Congo
The world's most neglected emergency is the ongoing tragedy of the Congo, where six to seven million have died since 1996 as a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by western powers trying to gain control of the region's mineral wealth

6. Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
Special Counsel Scott Bloch, appointed by President Bush in 2004, is overseeing the virtual elimination of federal whistleblower rights in the US government.

7. US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
The American Civil Liberties Union released documents of forty-four autopsies held in Afghanistan and Iraq October 25, 2005. Twenty-one of those deaths were listed as homicides. These documents present irrefutable evidence that US operatives tortured detainees to death during interrogation.

8. Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
In December 2005, Congress passed the 2006 Defense Authorization Act, which renders Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) "operational files" fully immune to FOIA requests, the main mechanism by which watchdog groups, journalists and individuals can access federal documents.

9. The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
Despite the 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision that called for tearing down the Israel-Palestinian Wall--construction of the Wall has accelerated using World Bank funds.

10. Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
A key element of Bush's draw down plans in Iraq includes increased uses of airpower. Expanded air strikes will likely lead to increased civilian deaths.

11. Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
Several recent studies confirm fears that genetically modified (GM) foods damage human
health.

12. Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
The US plans to resume production of antipersonnel landmines.

13. New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
New studies reveal that Roundup, the most widely used weed killer in the world, poses serious human health threats.

14. Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
Halliburton's subsidiary KBR has been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps in the United States for immigrations surges and "news programs."

15. Chemical Industry is EPA's Primary Research Partner
The American Chemical Council is now EPA's leading research partner

16. Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
Ecuador and Mexico have refused to sign bilateral immunity agreements (BIA) with the US, in ratification of the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, despite the Bush Administration's threat to withhold economic aid

17. Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
The US occupation of Iraq has been used by the US to acquire access to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

18. Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
Research by Brigham Young University physics professor, Steven E. Jones, concludes that the official 9/11 explanation for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is implausible according to laws of physics

19. Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
New developments in satellite imaging technology reveal that the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed twice as quickly as previously estimated

20. Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief--often mistaken--that it is better for us than what flows from our taps. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.

21. Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
Barrick Gold, a powerful multinational gold mining company, planned to melt three Andean glaciers in order to access gold deposits through open pit mining.

22. Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
More than $8 billion in Homeland Security funds has been doled out to states since the September 11, 2001 attacks, but the public has little chance of knowing how this money is actually being spent.

23. US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
Lobbyists funded by the US oil industry have launched a campaign in Europe aimed at derailing efforts to enforce the Kyoto Protocol against global warming

24. Cheney's Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
Vice President Dick Cheney's stock options in Halliburton rose from $241,498 in 2004 to over $8 million in 2005, an increase of more than 3,000 percent

25. US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region
South American countries are concerned that a massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is designed to be a US military stronghold in the region.


Contact Information:

Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
Full reviews of the stories are available at: ProjectCensored.org



3) Greenhouse Gas Bubbling From Melting Permafrost Feeds Climate Warming

Methane bubbles trapped in lake ice during the first few days of ice formation on a Siberian thermokarst lake.
Courtesy of Jeff Chanton, FSU Oceanography Department.
by Staff Writers
Tallahassee FL (SPX) Sep 07, 2006

A study co-authored by a Florida State University scientist and published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature has found that as the permafrost melts in North Siberia due to climate change, carbon sequestered and buried there since the Pleistocene era is bubbling up to the surface of Siberian thaw lakes and into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

In turn, that bubbling methane held captive as carbon under the permafrost for more than 40,000 years is accelerating global warming by heating the Earth even more --- exacerbating the entire cycle. The ominous implications of the process grow as the permafrost decomposes further and the resulting lakes continue to expand, according to FSU oceanography Professor Jeff Chanton and study co-authors at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

"This is not good for the quality of human life on Earth," Chanton said.

The researchers devised a novel method of measuring ebullition (bubbling) to more accurately quantify the methane emissions from two Siberian thaw lakes and in so doing, revealed the world's northern wetlands as a much larger source of methane release into the atmosphere than previously believed. The magnitude of their findings has increased estimates of such emissions by 10 to 63 percent.

Understanding the contribution of North Siberia thaw lakes to global atmospheric methane is critical, explains the paper that appears in this week's Nature, because the concentration of that potent greenhouse is highest at that latitude, has risen sharply in recent decades and exhibits a significant seasonal jump at those high northern latitudes.

Chanton points to the thawing permafrost along the margins of the thaw lakes -- which comprise 90 percent of the lakes in the Russian permafrost zone -- as the primary source of methane released in the region. During the yearlong study, he performed the isotopic analysis and interpretation to determine the methane's age and origin and assisted with measurements of the methane bubbles' composition to shed light on the mode of gas transport.

"My fellow researchers and I estimate that an expansion of these thaw lakes between 1974 and 2000, a period of regional warming, increased methane emissions by 58 percent there," said Chanton. "Because the methane now emitted in our study region dates to the Pleistocene age, it's clear that the process, described by scientists as 'positive feedback to global warming,' has led to the release of old carbon stocks once stored in the permafrost."

Related Links
Florida State University
Learn about Climate Science at TerraDaily.com

www.terradaily.com/reports/Greenhouse_Gas_Bubbling_From_Melting_Permafrost_Feeds_Climate_Warming_999.html


For more resources on this topic, see:

Mounting Evidence of Extreme Global Warming

and

Stirling Solution for Onsite Power Production



Translate this Page!


The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes FNs' use of copyrighted material is posted at FlybyNews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
If you would like to receive more Flyby News alerts for the New England
region, send an email to flyby@mtdata.com & insert "subscribe" in subject


Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.

=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>

= = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =



Email address: