Article #1: Caves point to thawing of Siberia: Thaw in Siberia's Permafrost may accelerate global warming

University of Oxford. "Caves point to thawing of Siberia: Thaw in Siberia's permafrost may accelerate global warming." ScienceDaily, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

In this article, the author focuses on the environmental issue of global warming and the effects it has on Siberian permafrost. From research that was conducted on some of Siberia’s southern caves, scientists have evidence that if the earth’s global temperature rises 1.5 degrees Celsius there is a possibility that massive areas of Siberia could thaw out.  This evidence was found by research conducted on the caves stalagmites and stalactites.  Since stalagmites and stalactites only form by the melting of snow/dripping of water in caves, scientists can use these formations to learn about other periods in history that had these same events occurring.  After conducting their research, they had found that there was only one other time in history when events like we are seeing today have occurred.  (This time in history was 400,000 years ago).  From this study, they have concluded that if the temperature rises 1.5 degrees Celsius, parts of Siberia could see massive thawing in its permafrost.

I think this is a very interesting article about global warming and it gives its readers a better idea of other areas in the world that are being affected by this environmental issue.    This article is pretty similar to the events occurring to the arctic ice caps but I think that the stalagmites and the stalactites in the caves in Siberia could better show how high our temperatures have risen and how much more they have to rise to cause more problems in the environment. If these formations in the caves in Siberia can show what the temperature was 400,000 years ago, and they show that the environment then is like it is today, then isn’t this little increase in temperature normal? This rise in temperature has occurred before so it’s not totally out of the ordinary, but I guess if you look at what happened to all other living things during that time because of the rise in temperature it could bring up concern.  When you think about it, there was nothing 400,000 years ago that could cause what we are calling global warming today.  Nowadays, our cars and pollution are putting high amounts of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, but what would have done these things 400,000 years ago to this extent? If you really think about it, these events are somewhat natural if they have occurred before without human impacts, so the events occurring today could be occurring naturally with extra help from our higher carbon dioxide emissions.