Latest Climate Conundrum: Bad Beavers or Good?
Latest Climate Conundrum: Bad Beavers or Good? Cows and bison in the same fix. JOHN KLAR (Photo by Rainer Erl/McPhoto/ullstein bild via Getty Images) Climate “science” has long claimed that the hard-working beaver plays an essential role in sequestering carbon by corralling sediments in dams. A recent scientific study asserts that beavers colonizing the Arctic tundra are doing the exact opposite, releasing methane when their warming ponds thaw vast areas of permafrost. It is hard to decide whether beavers are enemies or allies in the climate mission to save the world — a common theme in the cloudy waters of pseudo-scientific climate claims. Good Beaver, Bad Beaver The latest beaver climate-impact narrative alarmingly suggests beavers have been colonizing the northern territory at a frantic pace, creating new bodies of relatively warm water with their damming projects that thaw the underlying ground and release methane, a marsh gas now designated as a planet-slayer. Scientists hav...