Rodents such as squirrels and beavers are contributing far more to global warming than previously thought, forcing climate scientists to alter the models they use to chart how the world is warming up.
Arctic ground squirrels churn up and warm soil in the Tundra, releasing carbon dioxide, while methane released by beavers contributes 200 times more methane than they did 100 years ago, according to scientists from the American Geophysical Union.
Faeces and urine produced by rodents are speeding up the release of carbon from the permafrost, the vast store of greenhouses spanning the Arctic Circle, researchers found.
Dr Sue Natali, from the AGU, said “We know wildlife impacts vegetation, and we know vegetation impacts thaw and soil carbon.
“It certainly has a bigger impact than we’ve considered and it’s something we will be considering more and more going into the future.”
It is probably a safe bet to say that there are a lot of factors like this that the AGW witch hunters have overlooked when developing computer models. After all, Fuzzy McBeaverton isn’t exactly the face of climate change that is going to sell the public on the tripling of their utility bills, is it?
This also serves to illustrate just how dangerous it can be to legislate based on computer models about climate change when the accuracy of those models depend entirely on the data used to create them.
If you’re wondering whether the data might be “massaged” a bit to have a given model allow its creator adhere to Climate Church orthodoxy, the answer is: definitely.
There’s big money in Big Green.
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