This weekend on the news I stumbled upon an article that talked about Russian scientist, Sergey Zimov, trying to recreate the ice age by relocating animals such as wild horses, moose, reindeer, bison and deer, back to the place where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate that by filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals will slow down global warming. This seems like an interesting theory and of course one I would be willing to support, after all, animals once roamed free and the Earth looked better than ever before we started destroying it. Herbivores keep wild grass short and healthy sending up fresh shoots through the summer and autumn. In the winter, the animals trample and flatten the snow that otherwise would insulate the ground from the cold air. That helps prevent the frozen ground, or permafrost, from thawing and releasing powerful greenhouse gases. Today, Zimov has 70 animals in the park and some like the wild horses come regularly to a cabin where a caretaker stays year-round. The cost of bringing more animals to Siberia seems to be the problem as 1,000 bison from North America would cost $1 million to bring, but this theory, if proven correct, would mean that scientists from other parts of the world could do the same thing to areas that have been affected by the lack of animals grazing around.
Link to site: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_ice_age_park
No comments:
Post a Comment