Posted on 05/04/2008 11:11:18 AM PDT by gleeaikin
Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel?
AP
It's always been a disturbing what-if scenario for climate researchers: Gas hydrates -- hard clumps of ice and methane, conserved by freezing temperatures and high pressure -- could grow unstable and release massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas, the result would be a drastic acceleration of global warming. Until now this idea was mostly academic. Now it seems more likely that it will.
Russian polar scientists have strong evidence that the first stages of melting are underway. They've studied the largest shelf sea in the world, an underwater area six times the size of Germany. The scientists are presenting their data at the European Geosciences Union this week in Vienna.
REPRINTS n the permafrost bottom of the 200-meter-deep sea, enormous stores of gas hydrates lie dormant in mighty frozen layers of sediment. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here is estimated at 540 billion tons. "This submarine hydrate was considered stable until now," says the Russian biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova, a member of the Pacific Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok.
The Russian scientists have estimated what might happen when this Siberian permafrost-seal thaws completely and all the stored gas escapes. They believe the methane content of the planet's atmosphere would increase twelvefold. "The result would be catastrophic global warming," say the scientists. The greenhouse-gas potential of methane is 20 times that of carbon dioxide, as measured by the effects of a single molecule.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Are you sure? It looks suspiciously like what I found when I opened that old jar of grape jelly the other day.....
Then there is the LIE we are running out of fuels, with the sudden realization that NOT burning FUEL WILL cause mass starvation and warfare, some of which could be nuclear.
(Just a minor change there. You've been listening to the propaganda from ABBCNNBCBS haven't you?)
We have over 300 years of coal proven available, but will probably find something else within 20-45 years. Might even be fusion, might be better fission plants, might even be a part from solar.
There is NO energy crisis - other than what Washington liberals have created. Deliberately.
“Then there is the LIE we are running out of fuels.”
The probability of fussion ever being viable is extremely low, yes we have coal reserves, but much of them are hard to reach, of lower quality, or extremely destructive to the environment in removal. I have contacts in WVa and the hilltop removal there is terrible to behold as to consequences. I sold underground coal rights in Southern Illinois more than 20 years ago as did many others, but the coal is 800 feet underground and of inferior subbituminous grade. Having burned anthricite as a child, I know there is a big difference. Oil shale and tar sands are another very dirty source. Our best hope is the rapid development of cellulosic ethanol and algae biodiesel as well as wind and solar which my fiance has been following in great detail.
“Looks suspiciously like...that old jar of grape jelly.”
Actually, I think it is a giant peacock. ;)
Yeah, kind of like cropping Mentos into Diet Coke!
I'm getting to where I can't even type anymore!
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.