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Strong Methane Emissions On the Siberian Shelf
rrohbeck writes "The Independent reports brand-new results of high concentrations of methane — 100x normal — above the sea surface over the Siberian continental shelf. A large number of methane plumes have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor. This is probably due to methane clathrate, buried under the sea floor before the last ice age, breaking up as higher water temperatures melt the permafrost that had contained it."
So this is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a flatulent belch of ancient methane.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Alright, who farted a few hundred thousand years ago?
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Luckily the methane emissions won't cause further warming. Hurray!
"The right to do something does not mean doing it is right." William Safire
Could this be used to drive electric plants? Is it recoverable? Anyone have a match? A really fucking big match?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
By a factor of 27 or so. That's why effluent processing plants will burn the stuff off (apart from the fact it gives them some power).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Let's look at this for a few decades and see if it's really happening.
So, what happens if lightning strikes over one of these plumes?
Learn about Photography Basics.
We're advising all our customers to put everything they have into canned foods and shotguns.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Except that these are _recent_ findings. The outer core of the Earth has been molten for a long, long time. (At least, heck, 6000 years or so)
Um.. what? You do know that the depths of the ocean tend to be very cold, right? Or are you suggesting that somehow the crust is thinning beneath the methane deposits and warming them, but at the same time there are no seismic events tied to this phenomenon, even though it is happening across a very large geographic region? Or are you just talking out your ass?
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
we aren't currently getting the warmest temperatures of this century, so why has it just started now??
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
"I fart in your general direction!"
Love,
Siberian Shelf
"probably warmer water"... Yeah, nothing to do with the fact we're sitting on a huge fucking lump of molten rock and metal.
That lump was no less molten when those clathrates formed. The fact is that the water temperatures have been going up and that the methane that was trapped long ago is now being released.
Meh, you guys were funnier when you were being eaten by lions.
Methane has an atmospheric half-life of about 7 years (turning into CO2 and water), fairly independent of any biosphere.
CO2 has an atmospheric half-life of somewhere between 50-100 years, with some nasty feedback (more CO2 = higher temperatures = longer half life).
So, per-volume, methane is worse, but what's gonna get us is the CO2 because that hangs around much longer and has the positive feedback.
Pun certainly not intended, I'm sure.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Of course water is warmer... since the last glacial period... since the Little Ice Age... Oh, but recently oceans and atmosphere have been cooling. Well, there's still that free gas available at the moment - got a funnel and some pipe?
A large number of methane plumes have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor over the Siberian continental shelf.
In other news, the Russian Navy announced a successful test of a submarine powered by a brand new propulsion system. The exact details are still classified, but sources claim there is a mysterious link between it and a new food and beverage contract awarded by the Navy to Taco Bell
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Works like this - first the permafrost/ice melts...this reduces/removes the main barrier that keeps the underlying water and sea floor at one relative temperature. Once that barrier is removed, the water and sea floor heat up, with the result being an increase in the release of otherwise captured methane.
It is actually a very simple, process...one that we could perhaps do without, of course, but hey - the times they are a change'n and Mother Nature is making the calls.
Why the hell do they put on black robes? I think you're confusing atheists with satanists.
And seriously, atheists use condoms, so we don't get pregnant, unlike the religious folks who think condoms are immoral.
but let's just hope it doesn't follow through.
Damnit. Kids these days.
In my day we were happy sniffing our own farts the old fashioned way- but no, that wasn't good enough. These days everyone is into their damn methane ice.
Who thinks this stuff up?
--Q
We're sooo totally fucked now!
> You do know that the depths of the ocean tend to be very cold, right?
Normally..... unless there is volcanic activity in the region like is currently going on around the north pole.
Study finds Arctic seabed afire with lava-spewing volcanoes:canada.com
But oh no, it just has to be global warming. It get shot somewhere: Global Warming! Record cold? That's Global Climate Change for ya. Floods? Drought? Plague of Locusts? Manmade Global Warming every time and the ONLY solution is the destruction of Western Civilization, replacing the values of the Enlightenment with Socialism and Planning.
Democrat delenda est
People have been expecting these Methane clouds:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3U0vEk53bVXHIcGUqqO64rvDAUg
"Melting of methane ice unleashed runaway global warming some 635 million years ago, according to a study released Wednesday that has implications for today's climate-change crisis.
Release of the potent greenhouse-gas, at first in small amounts and then in massive volumes, brought a sudden end to the planet's longest Ice Age, its authors believe.
During the "Snowball Earth" era, Earth froze over completely, with glaciers that crept down into the tropics and possibly even reached the equator."
The Hives: Hate to Say I told You So:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsm2hSKkH7E
In Soviet Russia... the outdoors farts on you.
-David
Actually humanity dies from lighting the fart. Consider what Professor Gregory Ryskin wrote:
"The consequences of a methane-driven oceanic eruption for marine and terrestrial life are likely to be catastrophic. Figuratively speaking, the erupting region "boils over," ejecting a large amount of methane and other gases (e.g., CO2, H2S) into the atmosphere, and flooding large areas of land. Whereas pure methane is lighter than air, methane loaded with water droplets is much heavier, and thus spreads over the land, mixing with air in the process (and losing water as rain). The air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%; as such mixtures form in different locations near the ground and are ignited by lightning, explosions and conflagrations destroy most of the terrestrial life, and also produce great amounts of smoke and of carbon dioxide. Firestorms carry smoke and dust into the upper atmosphere, where they may remain for several years; the resulting darkness and global cooling may provide an additional kill mechanism. Conversely, carbon dioxide and the remaining methane create the greenhouse effect, which may lead to global warming. The outcome of the competition between the cooling and the warming tendencies is difficult to predict."
You can see there's no real need to worry about global warming. If the "explosions and conflagrations" don't get you, the smoke and dust might cause global cooling. Or global warming, it could go either way. But the methane explosions are predicted to be the biggest killer.
So Michael Poole needs to get on this pronto.
And I think you're confusing satanists with nuns.
This is what it would be like, if the majority of people were athiests.
All I can say to the OP is:
BEST. SITCOM. PITCH. EVER.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2088
"The release of massive clouds of methane from icy hydrates buried under shallow ocean floors is the leading suspect for the most devastating extinction in the fossil record, according to a new analysis.
Methane best matches the unusual carbon-isotope fingerprints found at the scene of the crime, says Robert Berner of Yale University in Connecticut, US, though it cannot explain atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at the time.
Berner says: "It's possible that you could have a combination" of effects causing the mass extinction that ended the Permian period, 250 million years ago. The event wiped out the vast majority of marine species and left Europe a near-desert."
Oh shi...
Without the framework of religion, why is it "wrong" to kill someone?
It isn't. Regardless of religion. You just have to follow the correct protocol. War is something that never goes out of fashion.
Evolution has hardwired it into our brains: Killing fellow tribe members is bad for survival, ergo it will be perceived as immoral.
I was told it was "thou shall not murder" rather than "thou shall not kill" by gun toting right winger christian wack-jobs. Christianity seems not to have this framework. Judging by Islamic extremists, neither does Islam. The death penalty only seems to be part of the legal code of countries with a religious majority as well. From my own coincidentally atheist point of view, it is wrong to kill someone because if we spent all our time worrying about being killed civilization would fall apart. Well actually, we are here precisely because we are able to work, for the most part, cooperatively and not worry about killing each other. Then again, I do wonder why I am responding to an AC...?
When you dig down the temperature gets hotter. There is this thing called the core and it's made of molten lava. Do some research on how mines operate when they tunnel underground. Hint: they don't need block heaters.
The current Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles answers this question: because it's kind of a dick thing to do.
Seriously though, if everyone went around killing each other whenever it suited them, you'd always be in danger of being killed yourself. There's very compelling reasons for a society to collectively agree that killing each other is a bad thing and that it won't be tolerated. No need for a fear of divine retribution.
Why is it that it is wrong to kill someone in just about every religion? Somehow, regardless of culture people have all figured it out that killing each other is bad. It's really not that hard.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
"Of course water is warmer... since the last glacial period... since the Little Ice Age... Oh, but recently oceans and atmosphere have been cooling."
How is this bullshit insightfull?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
You do know that the hottest water found in nature is in the depths of the ocean, don't you? Superheated water turns to steam at 100C at the surface of the earth, but this same water released at the "depths of the ocean" are under intense pressure so the boiling point is much higher.
There are many places in the world where methane oozes from the surface. In some places, they support an open flame. This story is interesting, but it's probably just nature doing what nature does.
The mass extinction at the end of the Permian has been attributed to numerous causes. One of the prime theories also has to do with rapid release of methyl hydrates from ocean-floor clathrates.
The theory goes along the lines that oceanic overturning (exchange of bottom waters with surface waters) was limited in the Permian (even after the end of the Permo-Carboniferous glacial period), allowing accumulation of clathrates in oceanic sediments. However, overturning increased in the late Permian due to changes in oceanic circulation. This is conjectured to have caused massive releases of methane from methyl hydrates, with consequent large rapid swings in climate on land and in sea.
The evidence is not conclusive, but is strong. Most of it is derived from studies of marine fossils and isotope ratios. Discussion of the evidence and assessment of this and other theories for the extinction may be found, for example, in:
D.H. Erwin, The Great Paleozoic Crisis: Life and Death in the Permian, Columbia University Press, New York NY, 1993. ISBN:0715301306.
Of course, oceanic overturning is much stronger in the modern world, with deepwater formation especially strong in the North Atlantic and at the margins of Antarctica. This suggests the potential for clathrate release is probably rather less than it was in the late Permian, but not necessarily negligible. Another conjectured effect of global warming is slowing of oceanic overturning
The degree to which evidence supports these conjectures regarding ancient disruptions to climate is open to interpretation.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The Hebrew verb originally used is generally considered to be interpreted by "murder" (too lazy to look up a reference, but I've heard it a number of times) - so it is thou shalt not murder. No large scale social framework could function for a long period of time without the ability to kill. I guess you could point to certain eastern religions like the Jains as having functioned, but they generally get their asses handed to them throughout history.
It's the difference in interpretation of exactly what "murder" is that determines the destructive societies from the constructive ones.
Funny thing is that Islam has an even stronger moral code against killing innocents than Christianity, yet they are the ones which have the least problem with targeting purely civilian populations.
Perhaps this goes to show that it's not necessarily what your holy book says literally, it depends on who your contemporary religious leaders are.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Seeing as there is no way we can really stop this build up of methane from escaping at this point, we should be finding a way to capture and process it to reuse it.
Read the book the swarm this shit aint funny the book was fiction but it got all of its science from this shit and its pretty solid, and can show easily how bad this can get and how fast.
If that's the worst thing going on in Siberia that's good for them.
Yes, near geothermal vents, which is like saying that if I light a match in my house that the entire house is burning at 1000 degrees. The ocean is very very big, the small hot spots you speak of are not enough to melt the kind of area we're talking about here. This scenario was in fact exactly what scientists were worried about when these fields of methane were first discovered. Of course, at the time they talked about it more out of a sense of wilf speculation on possibility, not as something they thought was going to happen in their lifetimes.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
So why would you judge based on extremists? They are the outliers you have to throw them out of the sample.
Easily explained. "Innocents" is defined as "muslim". Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc, don't count. And they are killing each other off because they tend to not extend the the definition of "innocent" to other muslim sects. Or they are just murdering assholes who are complete nut jobs. Religious extremism tends to do that to people.
I read a paper by some muslim cleric justifying the murdering of civilians in Israel. Jewish babies grow up and everybody is Israel is required to server time in the military. Therefore, they are fully justified in killing future "zionist" soldiers. Sick fucker. I'd say that cleric needs killing.
-- Will program for bandwidth
That's just what The Man keeps telling you to keep you down and subservient to the white man's dominion.
And yet some of the world's worst atrocities were committed (and are still being committed) in the name of those very same religions. Hmmm ...
Not all religions preach against killing people. The muslims are told very specifically they must either convert non-believers or kill them.
-- Will program for bandwidth
It does touch on a point I've wondered about: religion seems to be the foundation of much of our societal moral code. Without the framework of religion, why is it "wrong" to kill someone?
Reminds me of thing Nietzsche wrote about the madman in the market place, "now that we've killed God, which way is up or down?" This is known as the question of 'grounding' and is the subject of much debate in the study of ethics.
Religion does provide one ground. It is perhaps most effective because it relies on blind obedience and discourages thinking. "What is wrong with murder ... easy ... God says don't do it." But other grounds, more suitable to thinking creatures do exist. Kant's categorical imperative, for example, "Want to live in a world where every person tries kill every other? No? Then don't kill."
Putting aside the question of grounding, it is my contention that a Christian cannot appreciate the true gravity of murder in the way an atheist can. Christians have convinced themselves in the existence of an afterlife. For them killing a human is merely removing them from this world (the less important world). An atheist on the other hand realises that killing a human being is the snuffing out of an individual and unique consciousness for all time. A consciousness which longs for existence, just as much as our own does. It is this moral consideration which stops the atheist killing. Theists instead act only in obedience to their God motivated by ultimate personal reward. You might go even further and state that whereas atheists can truly be moral creatures, theists can't.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
I think you're confusing nuns with judges...
Yes! Screw you government! I haven't yet filed a tax return for last year, and there's nothing you can do about it, because we'll all be dead.
*evil cackle* I win again! Oh, wait ...
...along with electricity and thus, computer culture.
So...how do I go about overclocking a shotgun?
Perhaps time to scale up from my desktop trebuchet to a real one?
To be honest, I was really hoping for a *zombie* type apocalypse, but oh well.
This could well be a possible explanation for the 1908 Tunguska blast in Siberia.
The event still remains an unsolved mystery, despite many theories put forward to explain it.
One of the possible explanations is that it was caused by high concentrations of methane accumulated from the crust, followed by explosive combustion.
It seems every day something else is going to kill us all.
Well, several theories suggest heating of the earth will stop the gulfstream and push earth in a new ice age.. better start downloading some extra porn for those cold long nights...
Without the framework of religion, why is it "wrong" to kill someone?
Off hand, I'd say a small scale version of MAD. If it is not wrong for me to kill someone, then it is not wrong for someone to kill me. I feel that it is wrong for people to kill me. Therefore, it is in my self-interest not to kill others.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
And the rate at which change is happening is unprecedented.
I'm not really arguing with you, but 'unprecedented' is relative what slice of time you look at and who's graph you pay attention to.
If you look at temperature records provided by proxy sources (ice cores, tree rings etc...) over hundreds of thousands of years - on many of the graphs you'll find - it's pretty clear that the last millennium has been nothing unusual.
If you look short term though, (past few hundred years) it looks pretty damning.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
Methane currently makes up 0.00017% of the atmosphere. That means these very localised 100x concentrations have 0.017% methane. This would mean if this concentration was worldwide, it would be approx 10x worse than the CO2 in the atmosphere. EVERYBODY PANIC.
However these are concentrations close to the surface over a very localised area. Permafrost makes up 25% of the earths surface, so that means on average this methane will now be of concentration to be 2.5x worse than the CO2. Still pretty bad.
However there are other factors, not mentioned. It's safe to assume 100x was the worst they found, not the typical (afterall makes for the best headlines), what was the average reading? How far above the surface was the reading taken? How does the concentration diffuse as you take readings higher up?
The article also neglects to mention that Methane breaks down after about 12 years (compared to 50-100 for Co2) and there's plenty of bacteria that break it down. Whilst this may cause levels to spike, once the vents in the exposed area are spent, it won't take long for levels to stabalise again.
Imagine a cow the size of the Moon letting one rip. That's what happens when the oceans warm up.
RANDOM ATHIEST: Damn you, Christian! We hate you! We claim to be tolerant of all religions. But we really hate your's! That's because we athiests are hypocritical like that! Die, Christian!
Man, these athiests sound crazy!
Do you think there's a chance that atheists could turn into these monstrous athiests?
There is this thing called the core and it's made of molten lava
Technically, lava is magma that has erupted onto the surface. The mantle is made of magma, which is molten rock. The outer core is liquid and mostly made of iron. The inner core is solid (because of the enormous pressure) and mostly made of iron.
1. The economy is going down the drain...
2. The ecosystem is going down the drain...
3. Sarah Palin is nominated for VP...
Are we starting to see a pattern here?
Anything to do with this?
1st diver: plant the flag over here, comrade.
*Plop... whoosh - bubble - bubble - bubble*
2nd diver: oops.
1st diver: Okay, try over here.
*Plop... whoosh - bubble - bubble - bubble*
Great, what do you call yourselves? THE ARISTOCRATS!
C 02 times 20? That's--gasp--C20 040!
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
I know! If people would just stop fucking idiots, the world would be a better place. At least in the long term. In the short term there would be almost no one to fuck.
> Scary, isn't it?
The fact that idiots like you exist is *extremely* scary.
See grandparent: there was no seismic activity in the area. That's why there's an article about it, dunderhead.
Oh and the "record cold" you reported? That was a record for the past eight years. The trends are up, and ignoring the problem isn't helping.
In post-Soviet Russian army, your General Direktion farts at you!
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Young boys need love too...
"The death penalty only seems to be part of the legal code of countries with a religious majority as well."
erm, China? Nazi Germany?
I'd say it can be seen as slightly distracting to solely look at death penalty - it should really also include countries that have a) employed very long prison sentences in b) conditions that are needlessly extremely squalid and life-threatening. In that case you might include the Soviet Union as well.
Of course, historically it's a struggle to find any, because it's a struggle to find atheistic societies at all.
"Then again, I do wonder why I am responding to an AC...?"
If you do things with no clue why, perhaps introspection is a good course. Or maybe you're just an elitist poseur who likes to emphasise that you only associate with the right sorts of people.
Question - why are the depths of the ocean very cold?
If:
1) The crust is warmer
2) The atmosphere is warmer.
Why should it stay cold?
I can understand that stuff can get really cold in the desert at night from radiative losses to space.
But at the bottom of the ocean?
Congres rambles on the 700 billion thing, Banks are crashing in Europe, Bosenova on /. , now this.
Here's a kitten
"Violence is the last refuge of the competent, and, generally, the first refuge of the incompetent" - Thing_1
Anybody checked the article on Storegga Slides in Wikipedia? Or read "The Swarm" recently? :)
The point is, it's inaccurate to say it can't happen because the deep ocean is cold. There could well be some other geological effect happening down there which is causing either a localized thermal event or some sort of widespread discharge of previously buried material.
Nazi Germany had a Christian majority. Apart from that I agree: you don't need to have a religious population in order to have the death penalty.
SILENCE! I kill you.
There's a warm and a cool interglacial. And a glacial.
We are still in the interglacial period.
And given that the end of the last glacial period is about the same as the average interglacial period, we are NOT (repeat NOT) just out of a glacial.
fuckwit.
At the moment, it's all "oh, it's flat, innit, so not warming" but when does it stop being flat and start going down?
Give us a year. Let's see whether your "prediction" is correct.
It's been five years so far and no sign of "down".
In 'The Stainless Steel Rat' the reason that is given why atheists are better people is because they know that this is the only life people have and will therefore treasure it as they know it is pretty final if you end it.
Religious people believe that even if you kill somebody, they have some sort of second chance, so it won't be that bad for that person if you kill him.
Please do understand that this is from a science fiction writer written in a book that is intended to entertain, not to preach. (e.g. The book also explains why robbing banks is a good thing.) What would the world come to if people (or 'actors') start believing some SF book is "The Word".
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
For this kind of thing I suggest to read "The Swarm " novel from Frank Schatzing. :)
Methane Hydrate instability can be quite dangerous.....
No - they'll become Aethists instead:
http://www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/aeth.htm
Rob
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The soviet union for example and that was an atheist state. I'm not sure if russia still has it but china certainly does and thats hardly run by the religious.
And for the record I'm an atheist and I'm for the death penalty in certain situations too , so don't assume everyone who supports it is a religious nutter.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
[Citation Needed]
Seriously. Where does it say that?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
1. Find natural gas leak
2. Blame humans for global warming
3. ???
4. Profit!
So this is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a flatulent belch of ancient methane.
It is not the world's end....
It is just an natural incident on the sea....
www.futuretechwriters.com
mail@futuretechwriters.com
Does anyone remember that episode of Notch Johnson, where Notch was a racecar driver and fueled his car with methane gas. It sounded like a fart goin around the track, and smelled like one too. Maybe we should get mythbusters to test that out. Could solve both problems.
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
So all the "Smoking can kill you" warnings should now be postfixed with "Instantly".
Talk about gloom and doom....
anybody got a match?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1. the crust isn't warm, there's still 10+km between the "bottom of the ocean" and magma on average.
2. it's freaking deep, no sun heating etc.
3. cold water(non-frozen) is heavier than warm water, so lower is colder.
Make a man a fire and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
Someone should sink a well down there and retire.
This time, it wasn't me!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Not all religions preach against killing people. The muslims are told very specifically they must either convert non-believers or kill them.
Yes, of course - they are one of the Judeo-Christian sects after all, and thus use stuff from the Bible/Thora.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Because water has it's highest density at ~ 4 ÂC (40 ÂF), meaning that any at any other temperature it becomes lighter and raises up making room for colder water and so on and on and on...
Unless you consider Communism/Maoism and Nazism to be religions. They have (or had) the trappings - look at the symbology, the rituals and the charismatic leaders. They're not far off.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Er . . . what's funny about the state having people of differing beliefs torn apart by wild animals?
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
It should be possible to build huge floating membranes that float below the surface of the water and collect the methane into a central point where it can be pumped into pressurized tanks. The pumping stations would be powered by burning some of the methane.
Oh I had the impression that it got a lot colder than that, but I got around to checking and it looks like it doesn't - only about 2 degrees C.
I think you're all confusing obvious trolls with christians.
Having grown up in an atheist household myself i can say that you're right on the money there. Absolutely bang on, right down to the black robes (wtf, is that some sort of pagan reference or are you having a go at university graduates?)
Mine the clathrates now! Capturing and burning them is the only way to halt global catastrophe! A few billion dollars to Exxon and Haliburton is a small price to pay to save the world!
"...buried under the sea floor before the last ice age, breaking up as higher water temperatures melt the permafrost that had contained it..."
What am I missing?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
You ask that question, while claiming to be related to Catbert? What?
The mantle isn't actually molten; it's plastic and deformable but not liquid. Magma (the actual melt) forms in chambers in the crust at points where extra heat from the mantle rises to a level where the confining pressures lower enough to allow the phase transition.
You've got to give him high marks for trolling though - love the deliberately bad spelling and greengrocers' apostrophes!
game over man
What would the world come to if people (or 'actors') start believing some SF book is "The Word".
I see what you did there...
That's the contemporary meaning, but when Mohamed conquered Mecca he demanded only that the pagan idols be destroyed and spared the lives of everyone in Mecca. There are also other examples of his policies of not killing innocents, regardless of religion.
Constantine loved Christianity because it was so organized and used it to conquer and kill. My theory is that Islam is in a similar "teenage years" type of angsty mood. But yeah, in the mean time we need to get to them before they can get to us.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
instead of implementing paranoid gloom and doom, why not consider this good news? Collect it and use it as some amount of replacement for oil coming out of the towel-headed middle east. Its not a perfect fuel source but its cleaner than oil and happens to be located in larger quantities in a much more stable region of the world. Siberia, as far as I am aware, doesn't go around killing people for showing their ankles. Seems like the perfect opportunity to stop empowering the religious nuts/fascist and let them die of poverty.
Don't anyone panic, it's just my mother-in-law. She's scuba diving in that region.
"They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
Okay, this was stupid, but it does touch on a point I've wondered about: religion seems to be the foundation of much of our societal moral code. Without the framework of religion, why is it "wrong" to kill someone?
Within the framework of religion its okay to kill someone, you just label them hethans who are going to burn anyway.
Outside of the framework of religion, they're people.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
It may well be normal for the ice on Greenland to melt. The problem is that if it melts, sea level will rise 20 feet. Normal or not, that's going to be devastating to people who live near the ocean. The problem with global warming is not that it's not "normal." The problem is that we're going to have to spend many billions of dollars dealing with the repercussions of global warming.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
So Russia IS close enough to Alaska that they can smell Governor Palin! //ducks
The Qur'an:
Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."
Sura (2:244) - "Then fight in the cause of Allah, and know that Allah Heareth and knoweth all things."
Sura (2:216) - "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not."
Sura (3:56) - "As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help."
Sura (3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".
Sura (4:74) - "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward."
Sura (4:76) - "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah..."
Sura (4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."
Sura (4:95) - "Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,-" This passage not only criticizes "peaceful"
Sura (4:104) - "And be not weak hearted in pursuit of the enemy; if you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain..."
Sura (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Sura (8:15) - "O ye who believe! When ye meet those who disbelieve in battle, turn not your backs to them. (16)Whoso on that day turneth his back to them, unless maneuvering for battle or intent to join a company, he truly hath incurred wrath from Allah, and his habitation will be hell, a hapless journey's end."
Sura (8:39) - "And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah"
Sura (8:57) - "If thou comest on them in the war, deal with them so as to strike fear in those who are behind them, that haply they may remember."
Sura (8:59-60) - "And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they can outstrip (Allah's Purpose). Lo! they cannot escape. Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy."
Sura (9:5) - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them."
Sura (9:14) - "Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace..."
Sura (9:20) - "Those who believe, and have left their ho
-- Will program for bandwidth
The only problem with that construction is that the subset of the strong can always calve off and prey on the weak, excluding them from their society. Universal ideas like we're all children of God militate against that sort of thing, though obviously not perfectly.
Wow. I bet the atheist mom does anal (= SEXY).
Maybe. But then there's the established scientific principle:
He who denied it supplied it.
How does this get +5 Insightful for saying nothing but "Real science agrees with me. I won't point you to any of it, but trust me, I'm right. P.S. AGW is a religion." How about some actual facts here? The only "facts" Troed has come up with in this thread are culled from skeptic web sites (which Troed doesn't even bother to cite), and are easily refuted by citations to the Real Science (TM) literature.
How about some standards here?
I guess you could point to certain eastern religions like the Jains as having functioned, but they generally get their asses handed to them throughout history.
Based on your perspective, having your ass handed to you could be an acceptable event. You might even feel worse for the ass-hander (the dude shit-kicking you) than you do for yourself, since he's gotta be pretty messed up to have gotten to the point where he feels it's necessary to do the aforementioned ass-handing.
Funny thing is that Islam has an even stronger moral code against killing innocents than Christianity, yet they are the ones which have the least problem with targeting purely civilian populations.
It all depends on how you define "innocent". "Infidel" doesn't really have the connotation of "innocent", does it? To take this to Christianity, "Baby Killer" doesn't really sound too innocent either. Same for "Christ-killer", "Godless Sodomite", $religiously_motivated_slander_du_jour or any other term that propagates the whole "Us vs. Them" mentality.
Funny thing is that Islam has an even stronger moral code against killing innocents than Christianity, yet they are the ones which have the least problem with targeting purely civilian populations.
You havent heard of the Dresden and Tokyo fire bombings, or Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have you....
You're so far off, you're not even wrong.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
I saw a special recently where they went to where pockets of methane were formed below the (thinning) ice surface of a large body of water; they broke the top of the ice in several places with a shovel and were able to light up each one of them with a regular wooden match; the pockets would burn up(ward), looking like someone had hid a hand-held torch in the whole(s) with the flame reaching no higher than a few feet, for several seconds each at least.
No, anything big enough to effect the kind of area we're talking about would have shown a lot of other effects too, like tsunamis and distinctive changes to the chemistry of the ocean as released lava interacts with ocean water. This is pretty clearly happening because of the increase in ocean water temperature, which has nothing to do with point source deep ocean geothermal effects. You're welcome to keep looking like an idiot and post again though.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
There are some research projects and operations in the use of biogas as an energy source. Now with all of the methane under the permafrost in Siberia, if an efficient method to capture it can be devised, Russia could become the Saudi Arabia of methane.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
For us middle-class first worlders a tick up or down isn't a big deal but getting out of grinding subsistence agriculture and moving up the ladder to a merely crappy factory job means the difference between losing one sibling or three in the 3rd world.
What to keep more of the money you work to earn, and help the population in the Third World? Force government to stop giving hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, and other agricultural businesses. This year alone congress approved a $280 Billion farm bill by a veto proof margin. With these subsidies ADM and Cargill can export food to the Third World to sale it there for less than Third World farmers can grow food. Other First World nations are just as bad as the US. Australia, Canada, the EU, and Japan give large subsidies as well.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I read a paper by some muslim cleric justifying the murdering of civilians in Israel. Jewish babies grow up and everybody is Israel is required to server time in the military. Therefore, they are fully justified in killing future "zionist" soldiers. Sick fucker. I'd say that cleric needs killing.
Fucking spawn campers.
So what you're saying is that that particular subset of the strong fucks everyone else over anyway. The difference then is that with religion, it doesn't help, but still imposes irrational and stupid rules on the society. Oh, and is an excellent tool for those wishing to control the masses of average lusers.
Why are the depths of the ocean cold?
Well, if you had listened to your teacher in science classes at school one of the things that they would undoubtedly have talked about would have had a tile a lot like "The anomalous behavior of water".
Most liquid materials get progressively more and more dense as they are cooled, until they eventually get to a phase transition where they turn solid.
Water is different.
It gets more and more dense until it gets to 4 degrees C (actually, I think the more precise value is something like 3.92 degrees C), then as it is cooled further, its density decreases, still true even after its phase transition to its solid form (ice).
This is why ice floats, and if you think about it a little, it becomes obvious why the ocean depths are 4 degrees C -- because that is the most dense that water gets, so all the water at 4C sinks to the bottom.
There was a difference between the cruelty of the (Orthodox Christian) Czar and the (atheistic) Soviets. The Soviets were worse. The available data is that religion is a positive restraining force against savagery, just not a perfect one.
At the very least, a sudden release of mass amounts of methane could create immense hurricanes, even if no ignition takes place. The entertaining science fiction disaster novel Mother of Storms by John Barnes is based on that premise.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
They could also become the Russia of methane!!
Evil, evil empires i tell ya.
NO SIG
which is a truly wonderful plan. Honestly, it is!
But could you answer one small question - what's the technology you're going to use for capture of this methane. After all, it's present over very wide areas, which is why the quantities are vast ; but the tonnage under one particular point is actually quite small. If you have more than about 5% of the methane under a target area leaking out of your collection apparatus, then the greenhouse effect impact of the methane leaked is going to be bigger than the impact of the rest of the mthane captured and burned to CO2.
To transport the methane captured efficiently to market, you're going to have to compress it considerably. That's got a significant energy cost, so you can take that out of your energy budget.
Maybe the clathrate methane ores can themselves be bulk-shipped to closer to market. Ah, but that implies bulk-shipping megatonnes of rather dirty water. Put that on the negative side of the energy-balance equation.
I get quizzed on the potential of exploiting methane clathrates almost every time I go off to do my work - drilling oil wells. The people questioning me, and trying to work out solutions to the problems of exploitation and transport are mainly experienced petroleum engineers, pipeline workers, drilling engineers, mining engineers (making a better living this half-decade in the oil rather than in the minerals ; next half-decade, it'll be back to minerals). While we come up with some interesting and semi-plausible schemes, no-one who actually does this stuff for a living thinks it's going to be anything other than very difficult, and hugely expensive to develop. For a comparison, look at the tar-sands which are just starting to come on-stream and be significant - ideas about methane-clathrate mining are at the stage that tar-sand exploitation was in the early 1970s. It's hardly made it to the level of "back of an envelope".
Methane-clathrates are a potentially significant energy source, but it's not something that's going to be commercial this side of the 2020s, if not the 2030s. Which is OK ; if the banking system hasn't collapsed, that'll be about time for me to retire, and able to experiment with off-the-wall stuff as an option to supplement my income.
Hey, it might even be commercial in time to fill part of the energy gap which will happen after the oil has returned to being a chemical feedstock, and as the coal production is falling through the floor. That'll be good - it'll allow humankind to continue in the delusion that energy is always going to be available for another half-generation or so.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I don't think those events were directly related to Islam or Christianity. How do you think the events were connected to either Islam or Christianity?
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
We folks here in cold Norway are looking forward to getting tanned at the beach during the winter. Thanks all. You rock.
BTW, thanks for not joining the Kyoto agreement USA.
Stranger In A Strange Land. Audiobook, for a change.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
On and off, for several years, sea-level and satellite readings of methane in these areas have been used as indicators of their potential for more-or-less conventional hydrocarbons. Booo - satellite can't be relied on any more for this. I guess that it's back to shooting conventional seismic (which is on schedule anyway), dipping the water for geochemical tracers, looking for natural oil slicks on satelite photos of ice-free water, and all the other conventional techniques.
Errr, which were being done any way (or the seismic campaigns were being touted for contractors with suitable seismic boats with suitable gaps in their schedules). Oh well, film at eleven.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I oppose agri-subsidies, especially now that bumper crops can be diverted out of the food chain to supply fuel. The free market doesn't get subsidized. That's corporatism, technically economic fascism.
Agreed. I oppose almost all subsidies, I haven't seen one I supported everything else being equal. I do support subsidies for alternative energy sources but only because other energy sources get subsidies as well. If coal, hydro, nuclear, and petroleum weren't subsidized then I wouldn't support subsidies for alternatives either.
As it is, subsidies were only supposed to be temporary. But they have become a perpetual motion machine, every year they keep being given. And given in larger and larger amounts.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
To quote someone famous, "Republicans are terrified of dying poor."
Can you help us with that quote? No luck with "Republicans are terrified of dying poor" at Google, except this post, as of now.
One of the many reasons that "super-deep" (15km and less) boreholes cannot be drilled further is because the increase in temperature is too much to deal with to go further. There is a non-negligble increase in temperature even when you are "close" to the surface.
From the Wikipedia page on the Kola Superdeep Borehole:
However, due to higher than expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180' C (356' F) instead of expected 100' C (212' F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992.
On Soviet Russia trolls christen you!
Now with all of the methane under the permafrost in Siberia, if an efficient method to capture it can be devised, Russia could become the Saudi Arabia of methane.
which is a truly wonderful plan. Honestly, it is!
If the methane can effective captured it would be good. Methane is 20 tymes more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas but by burning it CO2 will be released. Hydrogen can also be made from methane by reforming it.
But could you answer one small question - what's the technology you're going to use for capture of this methane.
That's the hangup, capturing the methane. Here's some researchers extracting methane from permafrost. I read some tyme ago about a Russian oil company working on a way to capture methane.
I get quizzed on the potential of exploiting methane clathrates almost every time I go off to do my work - drilling oil wells.
This brings up something I don't understand, oil companies burn off methane where they drill and pump, those flares. Is that because it's difficult and or expensive to transport?
look at the tar-sands which are just starting to come on-stream and be significant
Doesn't the tar-sands, at least in Alberta, require a lot of water and energy to heat the water?
coal production is falling through the floor
Though I'd love to see that the US has 100s of years of coal, at least the way we're using today. I don't know how long it will last if it's gasified and used for purposes other than power plants.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
If, in the end, the increased wealth that CO2 emissions bring you allows you to clean up practices that are polluting and you save more lives than global warming costs, the emissions are worth it even if the most dire of global warming predictions are true.
What increased wealth that CO2 emissions create? The increase in poison ivy? The reduction in the growth rates of other plants. The increase in cooling costs? Drought in some places while others flood?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
a) even if you capture and burn the stuff that's bubbling up, you're still reducing the overall GHG load, but even better, if you
b) capture the effluent CO2, it may be possible to push it into the sediments in replacement for the methane clathrates.
What's even better is to reform the methane into hydrogen.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
It's not a cause for panic, it's something to look into. Even if this change has no global implications, the Arctic is changing in ways that make it very worth keeping an eye on.
I just thought of another possible implication. I wonder if methane acid could form, I'm not a chemist or chemical engineer so I don't know. CO2 is already acidifying the oceans. And that acid eats the shells of shellfish.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Here is your link: http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
It seems there might be a better match when looking at solar activity
"Sun's Power Hits New Low".
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I read a paper by some muslim cleric justifying the murdering of civilians in Israel. Jewish babies grow up and everybody is Israel is required to server time in the military.
However not all Israelis are Jews. Israel also has Arab, Christian, and Muslim citizens. There are Arab members of the Knesset, Israeli parliament. There are even Jews for Jesus and Jews for Allah.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
The soviet union for example and that was an atheist state. I'm not sure if russia still has it but china certainly does and thats hardly run by the religious.
Sure, China executes criminals. The government will even bill the family of the person executed for the cost of the bullet, at least they used to.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Not all religions preach against killing people. The muslims are told very specifically they must either convert non-believers or kill them.
Citation needed.
Though I'm not Muslim myself I had friends who were and I studied Islam in college. While Muslims are encouraged to convert non-believers, they are also supposed to treat Jews and Christians as brothers of the book.
Fslcon
Should there be a Law?
Western science of course was born out of Christian religion
Nice try. Christians persecuted scientists and others with knowledge. When Queen Isabella told Spanish Moors and Sephardi Jews to convert or leave Spain suffered a massive brain drain, most of the educated in Spain were Jews or Muslims. During the Age of Enlightenment scientific authority started displacing religious authority.
Err, I think you got that confused. How under an atheist world view how does a consciousness (which is usually under such a view a complex anomaly of brain chemistry) live for "all time"?
Under atheism it doesn't but Christians do believe in a soul that is immortal. As one battle cry goes, "Kill them all, let God sort them out." An atheist can't say that, and believe it.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
'Religious freak' said:
Funny thing is that Islam has an even stronger moral code against killing innocents than Christianity, yet they are the ones which have the least problem with targeting purely civilian populations.
There are a billion Muslims on Earth. If even a significant portion of these had no problem targeting civilian populations, the planet would be drowning in blood. This century, a lot more civilians have died as collateral damage from the actions of NATO troops than from bombings by minority extremists who claim to be Muslims. Most of those NATO troops and their commanders profess the Christian faith, but somehow nobody blames your contemporary Christian leaders...
People like you were one reason I lost faith in Christianity: There is very little Christ in Christianity. You know, "love your neighbor", "turn the other cheek" and all those other beautiful ideas I associate with Jesus.
Another poster pointed out that I mixed up the geologic epoch and was talking about something totally different than the original poster was. Although I suppose it's still marginally on topic since it has to do with methane emissions.
The actions of those in NATO, etc were not done *for the express purpose* of pleasing God; this is in diametric opposition to the "Muslim fundamentalists" whose actions are taken to create a "Muslim" world. But yes, I could've been a little more precise and pointed out that the vast majority of mulims do not subscribe to violence in the name of their religion.
As for the rest of my comment, I suggest you reread and pay attention to all of it, not just the quote you selected.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Sampling of such articles here:
(1) "Fire Under Arctic Ice: Volcanoes Have Been Blowing Their Tops In The Deep Ocean" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140649.htm
(2) "Arctic ocean volcano blew its top â" even under pressure" http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19826625.800
(3) "Arctic Volcanoes Found Active at Unprecedented Depths" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html
Possible methods to resolve question:
(a) send robot submersible with video camera down the methane plume to see what is happening on the ocean floor (i.e. seeing is believing). Is it cold & dark or warm and glowing red?
(b) audit regional distribution of frozen methane on arctic ocean floor, plotting location/concentration relative to undersea arctic ocean volcanoes and hot-water vents
(c) place sensors on ocean floor to measure temperature & pressure
Many people would look foolish if it later turned out the frozen methane was melting due to localized heating of the seabed caused by magma (lava) flows and/or geysers spewing hot water as happens along various undersea ridges
I believe Juanita
Hmmm, [reads cited site] OK, so they drilled a well to a depth of hundreds of metres to extract hydrates from a zone of unspecified thickness, for an unspecified radius around the well centre. ...
Maybe they used steam heating to destabilise the hydrates, then the methane comes up (while the steam condenses to water). Which is great. Until
Converting hydrate to relatively clean water (or later, water ice) changes it's density from about 0.9 tonnes/m^3 to about 1.0. So for each 10 metre thickness of hydrate converted, you get a 1 metre subsidence of the ground surface, working to collapse your wellbore and and lining pipes (we call it casing). This is a well-understood engineering problem - look up the Ekofisk field, where about a half-dozen oil platforms had to be jacked up by up to 3 metres because of subsidence caused by [reasons entirely unrelated to hydrates] ; it was a major and innovative piece of engineering that the Noggies are rightly proud of. With a little luck, and a skilled and well-equipped drill crew, you might be able to retrieve some of the casing (we call it "pulling casing" ; it's a moderately frequent operation), as long as the wellbore hasn't collapsed too badly.
How long your well is going to last depends on the thickness and area of the hydrate layer being extracted - the traditional unit of measure in the oilfield is the acre-foot (area X vertical-thickness-of reservoir) ; how many acres you can drain is determined by the permeability of the reservoir - in this case the soil between the ice crystals in the permafrost. The various bits of permafrost I've squelched through haven't had evidence of good permeability, so that's not a good sign for large productivity per well. The more vertical thickness you extract, the greater the collapse stresses you're going to impose on your wellbore. The limiting case, which you don't want to happen, is if you generate (part of) a circular fracture from your hydrate reservoir to the surface, and your steam (or warm water) and associated methane finds an easier path to a lower pressure environment through the fracture. It's called a blowout - think Red Adair (played by John Wayne in that hilarious film), or more soberingly the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia. Doubleplusungood.
Gut feeling in the drilling professionals - to pursue this strategy, you're going to have to be drilling wells at a spacing comparable to the depth of your hydrate reservoir, and you're going to be lucky to get months of life out of a well. Envisage a fleet of drilling rigs (small ones, it's true) working their way across the permafrost fields. Look at the energy costs this would entail ; and then look at the haul roads, access roads etc that you'll need.
It might work ; it might produce more energy than it consumes ; but it'd take a serious amount of project assessment work to determine if it's feasible. Me, I'd be interested to work on such a project, but I'd not invest in it.
Yeah. I bet they'll have had very familiar-sounding conversations, but in Russian. I've worked a fair bit in Russia and I respect their drilling capabilities and experience. Their through-string retrievable bit systems sound fascinating. I'd be really interested to see what they've come up with.
The state of reserve reporting, internationally and intranationally, makes the state of oil reserve reporting look good. That's before the 25% write-off from Shell's reserve books and such like. Repeating the successful
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
And of course, all your sources are unimpeachable, deeply imbued with nothing but the essence of honesty, integrity, impartiality, and infallibility. None of the generate global warmist data in at attempt to get more funding and grants.
Exxon has more money to spend on research than Greenpeace does. Overall industry has more resources than environmental groups have, so why isn't there more studies disputing Global Warming than there is supporting it?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
There appears to have been a significant jump in methane levels in 2007 based on this alarming graphic. Global methane (CH4) concentrations rose in 2007. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/images/methanetrend.jpg But wait, it all depends on how you present the data. Figure 2. Global averages of the concentrations of the major, well-mixed, long-lived greenhouse gases http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi/aggi_2008.fig2.png Not quite as alarming when you present the data in its historical context. The methane horse is dead and the greenies are just going to have to come up with a new way to scare little children in the night. These tactics are so predictable that I am not finding much sport in the lies any longer. Earth to greenies, methane concentrations stopped increasing at just about the same time that global warming stopped. Could it be a coincidence? As the Sun sinks into an increasingly quiescent state, I find myself looking forward the big green spin machine explaining the Sun away. The games afoot and let the fun begin. You are going to have to be truly creative this time. Are you up to the task? How convincing a lie can be fabricated this time around.
It's called a blowout - think Red Adair (played by John Wayne in that hilarious film)
"Hellfighters" is one of my favorite movies.
Lusi mud volcano
Yea, I heard about that a couple of years ago. Mud keeps oozing out.
Coal reserves:
Reserve estimates of "hundreds of years" are not ones that their proponents defend when challenged. But like I said, this is an area of active research ; my understanding and reporting may be wrong, but I'd like to see the figure you're basing your estimate on.
It's not my estimate, just what I've heard. Ok, I found this, which backs you up: "Science Panel Finds Fault With Estimates of Coal Supply". It was the first result googling "coal reserves" science.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?