Confirmed : Oceanic Methane Release IS Occurring
Posted by:
Anonymous User
()
Date: August 17, 2009 03:30AM [www.eurekalert.org]
Sounds like we've hit that tipping point that everyone likes to think is 5-10-40 years away. Enjoy life while it's here & perhaps consider investing in Real Estate in the Arctic Circle. Re: Confirmed : Oceanic Methane Release IS Occurring
Posted by:
Tamukha
()
Date: August 17, 2009 12:18PM Thanks for posting this, cb Re: Confirmed : Oceanic Methane Release IS Occurring
Posted by:
brome
()
Date: August 20, 2009 03:29PM Thanks cb.
Here's a link to the potential of methane: [www.newstatesman.com] "There is an even more chilling possibility. Deep under oceanic continental shelves right around the world, from Peru to Norway, huge quantities of methane are stored in "hydrate" form, kept solid by a combination of low temperatures and pressure from the water and sediment piled above them. It has been estimated that this methane hydrate store contains 10,000 gigatonnes - that is, ten thousand billion tonnes - of carbon, more than double the world's entire combined fossil-fuel reserves. Like carbon dioxide, methane is a greenhouse gas - in fact, it is 21 times more potent than CO2. If even a small quantity were to escape into the atmosphere, runaway global warming might become inevitable. This nightmare, scientists say, is increasingly likely. Warming ocean temperatures will destabilise the hydrates, allowing them to bubble up to the surface. This new methane will increase temperatures further, leading to still more release from the sea floor in a potentially unstoppable spiral. In fact, geologists increasingly think this feedback to have been the mechanism that drove the end-Permian cataclysm: carbon dioxide from volcanoes first raised world temperatures enough to destabilise methane hydrates, after which prehistoric global warming gained its own deadly momentum. A more recent geological event, 55 million years ago at the end of the Palaeocene epoch, provides even stronger evidence that a "methane burp" from the oceans has indeed happened before. Although less dramatic than the end-Permian, it was also accompanied by mass extinctions. Indeed, it was in the recovery period from this second crisis that mammals - including our primate forebears - first exploded on to the scene. The government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, was referring to this period when he told reporters at Tony Blair's Climate Group launch on 27 April that "Antarctica was the best place for mammals to live, and the rest of the globe would not sustain human life". He warned that these conditions, with CO2 levels as high as 1,000ppm and no ice left on earth, could again be reached by 2100." Also check out: [www.marklynas.org] Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2009 03:36PM by brome. Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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