That's a very interesting article. It looks like there are both dangers and opportunities created by the warming in the Arctic region.

I found that description of how the great boreal forests of Canada and Russia absorb a huge amount of CO2 during the summer, then release it during the winter fascinating...the analogy being that it was like the planet "breathing".

I find it a little odd that the article talks about greenhouse gases and then specifically mentions CO2 and Methane....but has nothing to say about water vapor which is the largest greenhouse gas of them all by far.

A warmer world would encourage the growth of vegetation...providing human beings allow that growth to happen.

It seems likely to me that the planet has a way of regulating itself quite intelligently through the ability of the plant world and other biological systems to adapt and change to fit new conditions and thereby bring those new conditions back toward a central balance....but humanity is a wild card in that process, because we cut down forests, kill off other species, and radically alter the environment in our continual desire to expand "civilization".

It's not an intelligent or wise approach to tie oneself to an economic model where "more" is always considered to be "better".

We need a new economic and political philosophy: one that is based on principles such as...

1. reducing population (by peaceful and unharmful means)
2. restoring the natural environment
3. replacing a competitively drive system with a cooperatively-driven one that sets out to secure a good life for ALL citizens as a normal civil right.
4. an end to warfare (which is another form of competition)
5. a work ethic that is based on acommplishing something that is GOOD for everyone, not just making money no matter how you do it, and with no regard to how it may affect other people, Nature, and the planet.
6. a moral ethic that values all life on this planet, not just human life...

We need, in short, to stop being egocentric destroyers of everything else around us.