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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
Scientists: Climate-Change 'Time Bomb' About to Go Off |
2008-09-30 |
There's a ticking time bomb underneath the oceans, and it's about to go off, some scientists say. A Russian research ship trawling the Arctic off Siberia's northeastern coast has found huge amounts of methane bubbling up from the seafloor, according to reports in London's Independent newspaper and the Canadian Press wire service. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, trapping 20 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. While there's little of it in the atmosphere, there are gigantic frozen deposits of it, called methane clathrates, trapped in rocks in seabeds all over the world. One of the leading global-warming doomsday scenarios involves all that methane thawing out as sea temperatures rise, then rushing to the surface and into the air, creating a runaway warming scenario. Now there's some evidence that's beginning to happen. "For the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface," Swedish researcher Orjan Gustafsson, aboard the Russian ship Jacob Smirnitskyi, told the Independent in an article published last week. "It's a time bomb because, as the permafrost thaws — and we don't know how fast it will thaw — it's going to slowly and maybe catastrophically at some point, release all that methane that's trapped underneath as a solid," Marianne Douglas, head of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, told the Canadian Press. |
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
#11 "Isn't methane fuel?..." This means we have a right, nay a moral responsibility, to capture this nasty methane and burn it into CO2 which will make it only 1/20th as deadly for globular warmening. Brilliant plan if I do say so myself! |
Posted by: WTF 2008-09-30 22:19 |
#10 Ok Spike, if you say so. As long as you are not writing from Wash D.C. Can't believe a thing coming out of D.C. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-30 21:25 |
#9 Ships yes, planes no, Beso. |
Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-09-30 21:20 |
#8 Glen: Agree regarding offshore rigs, but not airplanes and ships at sea. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-30 20:06 |
#7 Besoeker, Darth's right. Popping shallow gas pockets and reducing the water density is a major risk we have to account for when drilling offshore. |
Posted by: Glenmore 2008-09-30 20:03 |
#6 Darth: Have you been speaking to Hank Paulson again? |
Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-30 19:12 |
#5 Methane has been bubbling up from the seafloor for years. In fact, that is one of the possible explanations for ships disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. A large methane release will cause the buoyancy of the ship to plunge as the displacement effect collapses and it is like trying to sail a ship on air. Instant sinkage. |
Posted by: DarthVader 2008-09-30 19:02 |
#4 Uh, isn't methane fuel? I think I have a solution... |
Posted by: flash91 2008-09-30 18:16 |
#3 When we're still here in 5 years, revoke all these ninnies' academic credentials and turn them out of their jobs. When we're still here in 10 years, banish them to their beloved shrinking (NOT) icecaps... |
Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-09-30 17:51 |
#2 So much for the third season of Ice Road Truckers...... |
Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-09-30 17:34 |
#1 YOU FOOLS! SCREW YOUR FINANCIAL CRISIS!! EARTH FARTS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!!! |
Posted by: tu3031 2008-09-30 17:20 |