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SEARCH More than 5,600 stories! A great gift for crisis deniers! Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies 94 color pages $24.99 now $15! Or read FREE online! Twitter Ping this story in social media: del.icio.us Digg Newsvine NowPublic Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

Posted Sun Feb 15 2009: from New Scientist: Burp of Arctic laughing gas is no joke http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1234738223 It seems the Arctic['s melting permafrost] is belching out nitrous oxide -- commonly known as laughing gas. Unfortunately, the punchline is that it is a powerful greenhouse gas. Previously, emissions of N2O were thought to enter the atmosphere mainly from tropical forests and intensively managed farmland, with only a negligible amount from northerly environments.... Although this means N2O remains a small contributor to the greenhouse effect, compared with methane and carbon dioxide, the gas persists unaltered in the atmosphere for over 110 years, compared with around 10 years for methane -- which is also periodically released by the tundra. [Read more stories about: permafrost meltdown, arctic meltdown, feedback loop] New!: No reader quips yet -- be the first! Got a PaniQuip? Your Quip (limit 140 characters, no links, just wit): First name: The text shown in the Web image to the right: We reserve the right to reuse, remove, or refuse any entry.

'Doc Jim says: Yo! Permafrost! We're doing the punchlines around here! NEXT> More stories: Bringing Wind Turbines to Ordinary Rooftops Tropical forests are drying out because of global warming (Burp of Arctic laughing gas is no joke) When fish farms are built along the coast, where does the waste go? 'Crazy ideas' to fight global warming revealed by scientists Want to explore more? Try the PaniCloud!

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