Methane seen as growing climate risk

AP on SFGate.com ^ | 3/4/10 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Methane, a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the frozen Arctic faster than had been expected.

Methane had become trapped in the permafrost over time and a warming climate is now resulting in its release, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

"The amount of methane currently coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world's oceans," said Natalia Shakhova, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center and the co-author.

Concerns about global warming have centered on rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but scientists note that methane can be 30 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

[colonialhk]

Yes lets blame Peat Bog leakage on Pete Stark. He has proved a threatening leakage of noxious bio-gas. Idea of the week...Lets convert CO2 to Methane by throwing huge amounts of wind power at it...sarc

[TigersEye]

Methane seen as growing climate risk

(Because people aren't buying the baloney about CO2 anymore.)

[TigersEye]

Termites are the largest source of methane gas on the planet. The vast majority of termites live in the Amazon rain forest. The only workable solution to the methane gas problem is to destroy the Amazon rain forest. Do it for the planet. Do it for the chirren!

[21twelve]

“So we should mine the methane, burn it to C02 + H20. That would reduce global warming, right?”

There ya go! Plus, reduce the risk of natural releases of the stuff that might cause massive extinctions! I think any ocean mining is really tough. I remember as a kid reading about how manganese nondules are just sitting on the ocean floor and folks were going to “mine” them. I wonder what ever happened with that?

[Peet]

Let me see if I have this right. Article says

“Methane had become trapped in the permafrost over time and a warming climate is now resulting in its release,...”

So global warming causes global warming? Ah... OK... Whatever.

Kinda makes me wonder what causes expansion of both Algore and his bank account.

[DesertConservative]

Scientific three-card monte.

[Frantzie]

Landfills and also sewage plants. The local sewage/water plant used to have a big pipe venting off burning gas like offshore oil platforms have.

[JustDoItAlways]

Methane levels in the atmosphere are stabilizing. This is another global warming scare tactic (designed to keep the followers in fear).

Here is Barrow Alaska's Methane numbers up to last month. This area has the highest measurements and it leads the numbers in the rest of the globe. It takes about 2 years for these trends to make their way to Antarctica for example.

There was a slight uptick in Methane for the last 2 years after it looked like a plateau was reached. But now it appears the uptrend cycle is over and we are back on track for a Methane plateau very soon. Its okay to eat beef again.