It's not cows. It's the whale farts dude!
Posted on 09/06/2006 12:14:38 PM PDT by 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.
Noow let's not go scientific and muddy up the debate. ;-)
Ah, so since they were never measured before, they know how much methane they release regularly exactly how again?
Sounds like steak tartar.........
It's just part of the cycle that drives ice-ages: the permafrost thaws, releasing methane, increasing warming, until the melting ice desalinates the North Atlantic shutting down heat-transport from the tropics (already starting), at which time the northern hemisphere cools, and the permafrost and glaciers return.
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. . .
Well this info should put an end to the " pull my finger" joke.
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!
And me so young and fair!
You just KNOW that is the next thing they are going to push.
That sound you Calleeforneeans are hearing is the huge fleet of diesel-powered moving vans arriving to haul businesses out of your State.
"The permafrost issue has caused a quiet buzz of concern among climate scientists and geologists."
More likely a buzz in anticipation of funding increases, travel expenses, media attention, etc.
What I described is more along the lines of a sauerbraten (w/o the extended cooking cycle, but WITH a much better flavour).
It's ALSO great to roll up with a stuffing, a la braciole or rouladen. If you marinate the beef in a citrus or cherry liqueur with perhaps a little red wine vinegar, try wrapping small thin slices of it around fresh melon balls. Unbelievable!
It's not cows. It's the whale farts dude!
Amazing! I'm FReeping with an Iron Chef!...........
Good thing there's no water vapor in the atmosphere.
So, light a match. That should take care of it. :)
Rouladen/braciole/rollups are all easy. Thin meat (btw, malleting the meat will usually make a more consistent texture than slicing it will. Easier to handle, less likely to disintegrate...tip for the day...better still, slice THEN mallet!), some tasty stuff to stuff it with, toothpicks or butcher's twine to hold it together. Sometimes you cook it, sometimes you don't, depends on what you're making. There are as many variations on this approach/procedure as you'd ever care to try.
Or, what the heck, invent a few of your own!
Buon appetito!
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!
And We're going to explode!
Wasn't it methane that escaped from that lake and killed all those villagers in Asia or where ever?
Pull my finger!
Read about the "Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum" and see if you're still laughing.
1 degree is not a big cause of concern. 3 degrees C in 100 years would be expected to cause significant ecosystem disruption on a planet where many ecosystems are already stressed by other factors.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.