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'We're f*****': Climate change will be catastrophic for mankind after study reveals methane leaking from the Arctic Ocean, scientist warns

  

Category:  Environment/Climate

Via:  larry-crehore  •  10 years ago  •  8 comments

'We're f*****': Climate change will be catastrophic for mankind after study reveals methane leaking from the Arctic Ocean, scientist warns
  • Claim was made by Dr Jason Box about a study at Stockholm University
  • Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat
  • Scientists believed bubbles would dissolve before they reached surface
  • But the study found large amounts of leaked methane in the Arctic
  • 'I may escape a lot of this,' Dr Box told Motherboard, 'but my daughter might not. She's three years old'

By Ellie Zolfagharifard

The planet is 'f**cked' after scientists found huge plumes of deadly methane escaping from the seafloor.

This is according to Dr Jason Box who claims that methane will be the main driver of climate change if it escapes into the atmosphere.

The scientist, based at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, tweeted the provocative statement after a Swedish study found methane leaking beneath the Arctic.

Some of this methane which is over 20 times more potent than CO2 at trapping heat - is now making it to the ocean's surface.

The leaking gas from the seafloor may have its origins in collapsing clusters of methane trapped in frozen water due to high pressure and low temperature.

1407488358480_wps_6_02_Apr_2011_Alaska_USA_Me.jpg Leaking gas from the seafloor may have its origins in collapsing clusters of methane trapped in frozen water due to high pressure and low temperature. Pictured are methane bubbles escaping from a lake in Alaska

WHY IS METHANE A PROBLEM?

Methane is the second-largest greenhouse gas contributor to climate change.

The gas is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat and is currently being targeted by government in an attempt to mitigate global warming.

Methane pollution has declined by 11 per cent since 1990 even as the governments has pushed for greater use of natural gas.

But the longer view on methane pollution show that it will rise. The Obama administration points to studies that show that methane pollution is projected to increase to a level equivalent to over 620 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution in 2030, if no action is taken.

'We're on a trajectory to an unmanageable heating scenario, and we need to get off it,' Dr Box told Brian Merchant at Motherboard

'We're f**ked at a certain point, right? It just becomes unmanageable. The climate dragon is being poked, and eventually the dragon becomes pissed off enough to trash the place.'

The conventional thought is that the bubbles would be dissolved before they reached the surface and that microorganisms would consume that methane.

But Dr Box said if the plumes are making it to the surface, there's a new source of heat-trapping gases that the planet needs to worry about.

This, he claims, is particularly disturbing because the Arctic is warming faster than nearly anywhere else on Earth.

His comments follow research in May which found that freshwater sources may be an unrealised source of methane.

Unlike carbon dioxide, which is highly soluble in water, methane exists in two forms in these freshwater sources: as a dissolved gas and encapsulated in bubbles that rise from sediments.

Full Article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2719727/Were-f-ked-Climate-change-catastrophe-mankind-study-shows-methane-leaking-Arctic-Ocean-scientist-warns.html


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A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
link   A. Macarthur    10 years ago

Notice the Republican climate change deniers went from outright, faux-science propaganda bullshit to their new flash card "We're not scientists" (a.k.a. "We have no fucking clue but must continue to pander to willfully ignorant jerks!")

All the while, its political base insanely supports the legislator pimp/whores for the profiteer-killers of the earth's ecosystems and thinks itself to actually be PRO-LIFE!

If President Obama suddenly declared GCC was a fraud, the right-wing morons would be calling him a liar and demanding clean-air standard reforms!

I frequently wish Obama would hold a press conference announcing that "people shouldn't eat shit because it's unhealthy."

I can imagine the bumper stickers on Tea Party vehicles

"REAL AMERICANS DON'T FLUSH."

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
link   A. Macarthur    10 years ago

How does a constitutional scholar have time to keep up with all this?

Another cheap shot/personal attack from the master.

No fuckin' hint of a factual rebuttal just attack the messenger.

And of course, you're always right

EXTREME RIGHT.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov    10 years ago
If we are already f***ed, can we stop worrying about it? I need to get to my GMO dinner...
 
 
 
Petey Coober
Freshman Silent
link   Petey Coober    10 years ago

The climate dragon is being poked, and eventually the dragon becomes pissed off enough to trash the place.'

This is a scientist ? He sounds more like a fanatic , hell bent on rabble rousing .

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov    10 years ago
Some nations are studying the feasibility of accessing deep ocean methylhydrate for power. Climate change is one argument against that.
 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
link   Krishna    10 years ago

Actually, we do have the technology...that's wasn't the problem.

 
 
 
Larry Crehore
Freshman Silent
link   seeder  Larry Crehore    10 years ago
 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
link   A. Macarthur    10 years ago
As the permafrost begins to melt due to an increase of temperatures, methane gas is releases into the atmosphere exacerbating the effects further. It's not a single-faceted phenomenon. Carbon emissions exacerbate the natural climate cycle heating periods to beyond "normal" which in turn precipitates other phenomena ... It's a domino effect.Conservatives piss on any information coming from liberals like Gore and Obama ... Objectivity goes to he'll because the zeal-without-knowledge crowd wants fuel for its fire.Cut off your noses ... Denigrate the those who know of what they speak because they're liberals.If it were just stupid it would be less consequential; but stupid and potentially catastrophic is another thing altogether.The oil-baron Koch Brothers write and pay for the bullshit campaigns that their conservative sycophants drool over.And we may all pay in the end.
 
 

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