What are you talking about?!? Shakova says precisely what the Wikipedia article says: 50 GTons is at risk of immediate release through taliks and would cause a 12-fold increase to atmospheric methane levels.
Now WHY is it you think you should be a skeptic?
Holocene thermal max was much warmer than the present day and yet no disaster like you claim will occur. Why is that?
Mid-Holocene Thermal Maximum
Conclusions about the mid Holocene warmth are based on several lines of evidence -
latitudinal displacements of vegetation zones (Ritchie et al., 1983) and
vertical displacements of mountain glaciers (Porter & Orombelli, 1985).
Quantitative estimates of mid-Holocene warmth (COHMAP, 1988) suggest that the Earth was perhaps 1 or 2°C warmer than today.
Most of this warmth may primarily represent seasonal (summer) warmth rather than year-round warmth.
Accompanying the higher global temperatures were significant changes in precipitation patterns, most noticeably in the monsoon belt of Africa and Asia. Reconstructions from palaeo-lake levels and latitudinal vegetation shifts (Ritchie & Haynes, 1987)
suggest that these regions were considerably wetter than they were during the arid conditions of the last glacial maximum (18Ka), when moisture availability from cooler Northern Hemisphere sub-tropical oceans was reduced (Street-Perrott & Perrott, 1990).
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Latitudinal vegetation shifts and loss of glaciers are not insignificant events from an ecological point of view. It could actually explain the disappearance of the native American archaic lifestyle, a major shift in native American populations.
You guys crack me up. You claim disaster is imminent with a ONE degree rise possibly occurring in the next 100 years and yet here you admit to a one degree rise that had no impact and the papers I present below have substantive support for a temperature of MORE than 5 degrees C and you ignore that because it exposes your claims for the lie they are.
The HTO WAS much warmer than today. Disaster did not occur. Case closed.
Midge-Inferred Temperatures from Three Interglacial Periods in the Eastern Canadian Arctic
* Axford, Y (axford@colorado.edu) , INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, UCB 450, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
Briner, J P (jbriner@buffalo.edu) , Department of Geology, University at Buffalo, 876 Natural Sciences Complex, Buffalo, NY 14260 United States
Francis, D R (dfrancis@geo.umass.edu) , Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, 233 Morrill Science Center, Amherst, MA 01003 United States
Baker, G , Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, 1412 Circle Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996 United States
Miller, G H (gmiller@colorado.edu) , INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, UCB 450, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
Lake sediments recovered from a Canadian Arctic lake are providing a rare opportunity to reconstruct Holocene, last interglacial, and earlier temperature changes at centennial to decadal resolution. Lake CF8 (informal name) is a small (0.5 km2) lake situated on an inter-fjord lowland in northeastern Baffin Island at 70$^{o}$ N latitude. Sediment cores from Lake CF8 contain three organic lake sediment units, separated by non-lacustrine sands. Radiocarbon ages from the uppermost organic unit span the entire Holocene. The middle organic unit is beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating. Comparison with a similar lacustrine record from Fog Lake, Baffin Island, indicates that this middle unit most likely records the last interglacial (Eemian) period. The lowest organic unit was only partially recovered, but may record the late stages of the penultimate interglacial. Subfossil midges (Chironomidae) are abundant and well-preserved throughout the organic sediments, providing a quantitative means for temperature reconstruction. Midge-based temperature reconstructions indicate that summer temperatures at Lake CF8 surpassed modern values by 10 cal kyr BP. Summer temperatures during the first half of the Holocene were as much as
5C warmer than present. Similarly, the early part of the last interglacial was several degrees warmer than the latter part of the period. The bottommost lake sediments we recovered, which were presumably deposited during the late stages of a prior interglacial period, record summer temperatures similar to those of the latter parts of the Holocene and last interglacial. The magnitude of early Holocene and last interglacial warmth at this high-latitude site lends support to concerns about Arctic amplification of future warming.""
"PP42B-04
The Holocene Thermal Maximum in the Arctic
* MacDonald, G M (macdonal@geog.ucla.edu) , Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524 United States
Kaufman, D S (darrell.kaufman@nau.edu) , Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099 United States
Duval, M (mduvall@bates.edu) , PARCS Data Office, Geology Department Bates College, Lewsiton, ME 04240-6028 United States
Kremenetski, K (costya@geog.ucla.edu) , Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524 United States
Through the support of the Paleoenvironmental Arctic Sciences (PARCS) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation two working groups of over 50 scientists have been synthesizing data from more than 160 terrestrial, ice-core and marine records from the Arctic. The aim of the synthesis is to provide a unified picture of the magnitude of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the HTM across the broader Arctic region. Work on the western Arctic sector (0 - 180 W) has been completed and is published (Kauffman et al. 2004. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 529 - 560). That synthesis suggests that the HTM temperatures were on average 1.6 C warmer than average 20th century temperatures. The warming was highly time-transgressive. The thermal response to the early Holocene precession-driven summer insolation maximum was concentrated in northwest North America where the HTM is apparent 12 - 9 ka (thousands of calendar years ago), while cool conditions persisted in the northeast with the HTM not apparent in Quebec and Labrador until the mid to late Holocene. The delayed warming in central and eastern Canada may be linked to the residual Laurentide Ice Sheet and thermal asymmetry caused by atmospheric circulation patterns. Our preliminary synthesis suggests that the magnitude of HTM warming was
often 2.0 C or greater. In addition, there is far less dramatic regional asynchrony than in the western sector. In general, HTM conditions are apparent between approximately 10 and 4 ka in the eastern Arctic with a slighter later initiation in some areas such as northern Fennoscandia."
Early Holocene Climate Variability and the Timing and Extent of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM): Comparisons From the Northern and Southern Hemispheres II - Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]