Study says methane a new climate threat (Permafrost Alert! The latest twist in Global Warming?)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/6/06 | Seth Borenstein - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Global warming gases trapped in the soil are bubbling out of the thawing permafrost in amounts far higher than previously thought and may trigger what researchers warn is a climate time bomb.

Methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — is being released from the permafrost at a rate five times faster than thought, according to a study being published Thursday in the journal Nature. The findings are based on new, more accurate measuring techniques.

"The effects can be huge," said lead author Katey Walter of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks said. "It's coming out a lot and there's a lot more to come out."

Scientists worry about a global warming vicious cycle that was not part of their already gloomy climate forecast: Warming already under way thaws permafrost, soil that has been continuously frozen for thousands of years. Thawed permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide. Those gases reach the atmosphere and help trap heat on Earth in the greenhouse effect. The trapped heat thaws more permafrost and so on.

"The higher the temperature gets, the more permafrost we melt, the more tendency it is to become a more vicious cycle," said Chris Field, director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not part of the study. "That's the thing that is scary about this whole thing. There are lots of mechanisms that tend to be self-perpetuating and relatively few that tend to shut it off."

Some scientists say this vicious cycle is already under way, but others disagree.

Most of the methane-releasing permafrost is in Siberia. Another study earlier this summer in the journal Science found that the amount of carbon trapped in this type of permafrost — called yedoma — is much more prevalent than originally thought and may be 100 times the amount of carbon released into the air each year by the burning of fossil fuels.

It won't all come out at once or even over several decades, but if temperatures increase, then the methane and carbon dioxide will escape the soil, scientists say.

The permafrost issue has caused a quiet buzz of concern among climate scientists and geologists. Specialists in Arctic climate are coming up with research plans to study the permafrost effect, which is not well understood or observed, said Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a study group of 300 scientists.

"It's kind of like a slow-motion time bomb," said Ted Schuur, a professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of Florida and co-author of the study in Science.

Most of the yedoma is in little-studied areas of northern and eastern Siberia. What makes that permafrost special is that much of it lies under lakes; the carbon below gets released as methane. Carbon beneath dry permafrost is released as carbon dioxide.

Using special underwater bubble traps, Walter and her colleagues found giant hot spots of bubbling methane that were never measured before because they were hard to reach.

"I don't think it can be easily stopped; we'd really have to have major cooling for it to stop," Walter said.

Scientists aren't quite sure whether methane or carbon dioxide is worse. Methane is far more powerful in trapping heat, but only lasts about a decade before it dissipates into carbon dioxide and other chemicals. Carbon dioxide traps heat for about a century.

"The bottom line is it's better if it stays frozen in the ground," Schuur said. "But we're getting to the point where it's going more and more into the atmosphere."

Vladimir Romanovsky, geophysics professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, said he thinks the big methane or carbon dioxide release hasn't started yet, but it's coming. In Alaska and Canada — which have far less permafrost than Siberia — it's closer to happening, he said. Already, the Alaskan permafrost is reaching the thawing point in many areas.

[NormsRevenge]

Protestors participate in a walk along U.S. Route 7, Monday, Sept. 4, 2006, in South Burlington, Vt., on their way to a gathering in Battery Park in Burlington. More than 600 people spanning nearly half a mile marched into Burlington Monday in what organizers said was the country's largest global warming demonstration to date. Monday was the final leg of a 49-mile trek from Ripton that started Thursday. Several hundred people marched each day, with some camping at night, organizers said. (AP Photo/Alden Pellett)

[NormsRevenge]

Former Vice President Al Gore waves during a photocall after the screening of director Davis Guggenheim's film 'An Inconvenient Truth' at the 32nd American Film Festival in Deauville, September 3, 2006. Gore predicted on Tuesday that President Bush would shift to do more to fight global warming, under Republican pressure from California to New York. (Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

[SF Republican]

I guess we rename it tempa frost in lieu of perma frost

[b4its2late]

We are so frikkin doomed, I think I just wet my pants.

Wetting pants is OK. Just don't let any methane gas escape from you......

[NormsRevenge]

Meanwhile in California..

AB 32 awaits the Gubby's signature.

Gotta do our part to fight Global Warming , yaknow... no matter how much of our economy it destroys.

Thanks, Gub!

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, right, hugs Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, after her global warming bill was approved by the Assembly at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. The measure, approved by a 47-31, will make California the first state to impose a cap on all greenhouse gas emissions, including those from industrial plants.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

[Onelifetogive]

"The higher the temperature gets, the more permafrost we melt, the more tendency it is to become a more vicious cycle,"

This is why, every 100,000 years or so, the earth becomes a blazing fireball zooming through space until all combustible fuel is consumed....

[NormsRevenge]

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen in Los Angeles, California June 6, 2006. Schwarzenegger, who has accused fellow Republican President George W. Bush of failing to demonstrate leadership on climate change, said he reached a 'historic agreement' with Democrats to make California a world leader in reducing carbon emissions. (Phil McCarten/Reuters)

[Doogle]

....blame the dinosaures,dinosaurs,whatever!!!...we have to get rid of the underground. See all along it was those pesky ants....wait wait...it's drilling for oil...???..yeah yeah thats it....we have to stop drilling for oil. Finally we can blame the Arabs for something.


Doogle

[bert]

No methane....no Gasoline.

[NormsRevenge]

The Greenland ice sheet in an undated satellite image. Ice Age evidence confirms that a doubling of greenhouse gases could drive up world temperatures by about 5.4 Fahrenheit, causing havoc with the climate, a study showed on Friday. REUTERS/NASA/SVS/Handout

[Always Right]

Outlaw Mexican food!

[NormsRevenge]

Moo Moo..

A milk cow eats grain at a farm. Scientists have launched a multi-million dollar project to reduce flatulence in cows, hoping that a drop in gas can help in the fight against global warming.(AFP/File/Don Emmert)

[JustDoItAlways]

It is only September 6 and the polar sea ice has already returned to Barrow Alaska.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/sea-lake-ice/barrow_webcam.html

Yes that's true, the polar bears are not going to be starving and drowning this year.

[NormsRevenge]

Beam me up, Scotty!

I can't bear it anymore.

Asiatic black bear takes a rest at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Mainichi Shimbun)

[SAJ]

Just slice it thin, marinate it very well (use tasty stuff like red wine and/or aceto balsamico with a little garlic and ginger, maybe an onion slice), and warm it up (don't cook it, the marinade does all the oxidation necessary). Uses way less energy, tastes every bit as good.

[NormsRevenge]

I think I just wet my pants.

Is that the best choice for Katie Couric's new closer for her "news" program or what?

[palmer]

One thing this piece fails to mention is that not only does methane break down in 10 years but that time is decreasing. Global warming scientists, as usual, blame man. Their theory is that by chopping up the ozone layer we let more UV through which turns H2O gas into OH and the OH combines reacts with methane.

[Joe 6-pack]

Is he wearing a bath robe in that pic? I didn't know "Inconvenient Truth" was a porno...Does Tipper know, or is that what makes it inconvenient?

[SAJ]

I hate it when that happens.

;^)

[17th Miss Regt]

gases trapped in the soil are bubbling out of the thawing permafrost

If the gases are bubbling out of the soil, I guess they are not really trapped, are they? Idiot editor.