Designing systems to heat plots of land: Is this really the best use of Department of Energy money and time?

Scientists Turn Their Heaters on Alaska : Planetsave

American’s Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have already conducted extensive studies on the impact of climate change on temperate regions such as East Tennessee. But less is known about how the Arctic will respond to climate change, which is where their focus is now being turned.
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Researchers at the ORNL researchers are designing heating systems that will heat multiple plots of land from above and below ground in an attempt to mimic the changes occurring in the Arctic. Their goal is to create individual plots with heating that represents specific increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.