New research on Arctic methane

[Old Rocks]

Exclusive: The methane time bomb - Science, News - The Independent

 

[dilloduck]

Exclusive: The methane time bomb - Science, News - The Independent

I hope they decide what the real problem is sometime. Not that anything can be done about it anyway. Methane has been bubbling out of Gulf of Mexico and they is no permafrost there.

Didn't this all start out the ozone layer getting wiped out hydroflorocarbons ?

 

[Chris]

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.

Exclusive: The methane time bomb - Science, News - The Independent

 

[dilloduck]

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.

Exclusive: The methane time bomb - Science, News - The Independent

You do realize this is a dupe of the OP right ?

 

[Chris]

You do realize this is a dupe of the OP right ?

Of course.

Some people don't click on links, so I did it to make it easy for them to read.

 

[xsited1]

Of course.

Some people don't click on links, so I did it to make it easy for them to read.

I lost my reading glasses. Could you record the text and send it to me as an mp3 file? Thanks.

 

[dilloduck]

Of course.

Some people don't click on links, so I did it to make it easy for them to read.

and sometimes you post the same ones about 89 times

 

[KittenKoder]

and sometimes you post the same ones about 89 times

Only sometimes?

 

[DiveCon]

only Sometimes?

Roflmao

Truth

 

[del]

and sometimes you post the same ones about 89 times

guns are bad.
bush sucks.
we're all gonna die.
repeat as needed.

 

[editec]

One cannot help but wonder, given the various economic and geo-political and environmental swords of Damocles hanging over our collective heads, if the Mayans weren't right.

December 21, 2012​

tick tock!

 

[Old Rocks]

In the first ten of the last twelve years, the rise of the methane concentration in our atmosphere leveled off as much of asia converted to dryland rice farming. However, for the last two years, we have seen the concentration increase again. Now we know the sources of the increase. Should this outgassing become major, no matter what we do, we are just along for the ride. You should referance the P-T, Triassic-Ordivician, and PETM events for the kind of ride that implys.

 

[dilloduck]

In the first ten of the last twelve years, the rise of the methane concentration in our atmosphere leveled off as much of asia converted to dryland rice farming. However, for the last two years, we have seen the concentration increase again. Now we know the sources of the increase. Should this outgassing become major, no matter what we do, we are just along for the ride. You should referance the P-T, Triassic-Ordivician, and PETM events for the kind of ride that implys.

Like we can stop it----who are you kidding ?

 

[Old Rocks]

We cannot stop the next 50 years of warming, but we can slow that down, and stop the warming after that, provided that we have not already passed the tipping point.

 

[xsited1]

If there was some way to harness this methane, we could have a virtually limitless supply of energy.

 

[dilloduck]

We cannot stop the next 50 years of warming, but we can slow that down, and stop the warming after that, provided that we have not already passed the tipping point.

You have no proof whatsoever that we can slow down climate change.

 

[Steerpike]

We cannot stop the next 50 years of warming, but we can slow that down, and stop the warming after that, provided that we have not already passed the tipping point.

That's an unsupportable and unprovable position. The thing people need to realize about climate change is that we don't understand any of it well enough to make these sorts of assertions.

 

[Chris]

If there was some way to harness this methane, we could have a virtually limitless supply of energy.

There is a way.

It requires a fart and a match.

 

[Chris]

We cannot stop the next 50 years of warming, but we can slow that down, and stop the warming after that, provided that we have not already passed the tipping point.

We have passed the tipping point, and we are pushing the accelerator.

We are increasing CO2 at an accelerated rate, and now the arctic methane is going to kick in.

When we reach the solar maximum in a few years, we will see the effect even more.

 

[PeterS]

I hope they decide what the real problem is sometime.

As opposed to the not-so-real problem? Haven't both been decided? Conservatives have decided it's not a problem and liberals have. The question now is if there is any points left to debate? Personally I don't think so...