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China To Tap Combustible Ice As New Energy Source
lilbridge writes "Huge reserves of "combustible ice" — frozen methane and water — have been discovered in the tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. Estimates show that there is enough combustible ice to provide 90 years worth of energy for China. Burning the combustible ice may be a far better alternative than letting it just melt, releasing tons of methane into the air."
I'd tap that.
For a while, I thought the headline read "China to Tap Combustible RICE as a new energy source". Considering how much rice there is in Asia, that would be amazing.
Yeah, when hell freezes over...
That my overt gassiness is in the best interests of future generations. That'll teach my girlfriend to complain about it!
We use this frozen combustible to freeze more combustible, which in turn will freeze even more combustible, which... no, errr, wait!
I like to admire the Asian tundra on Google Earth, and think about what a paradise it must be for mosquito predators, birds and such. I guess now we will be trying to discover how much environmental degradation is required to crash that eco-system. Too bad.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
maybe the idea that it definately *would* melt.
Nowadays it seems everyone just assumes the earth heating up is unavoidable, so why bother, let's just take advantage...
It could be covered up with reflective insulating blankets, thus avoiding both methane as well as it's little brother CO2 rise to glory.
As a sidenote: the earth has gone through numerous hot and cold periods; the CO2 levels rising can also be the *result* of a heating earth, instead of being the cause. The CO2 infrared absorption lines and it's presence in the atmosphere are both very small: it has just a very little real effect on heating up the air. CO2 will escape from water when the temperature rises though... We know temperatures are rising, so we can expect to see the level of CO2 rising too.
As a sidenote: the earth has gone through numerous hot and cold periods; the CO2 levels rising can also be the *result* of a heating earth, instead of being the cause. The CO2 infrared absorption lines and it's presence in the atmosphere are both very small: it has just a very little real effect on heating up the air. CO2 will escape from water when the temperature rises though... We know temperatures are rising, so we can expect to see the level of CO2 rising too.
Not wanting to turn this into another climate change flamewar - but it's both a cause and a result; when it's something else doing driving the change (e.g. the sun), carbon dioxide increases as a result of the temperature increase and it amplifies the initial driving force through a positive feedback, when it's carbon dioxide doing the driving (as it appears to be at the moment), the temperature increase is the result itself.
There's a quick way to check whether the increase is coming from the oceans - photosynthesis has a slight preference for carbon-12 over the heavier carbon-13, so if fossil fuels are responsible for the rise, the carbon-13 ratio should be decreasing. If the oceans are temporarily overwhelming the biosphere, it should be increasing.
Guess which one it is.
Also, the carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere is lower than our emissions. Nature is busy trying to remove it from the atmosphere, let alone being a source itself.
It may last 90 years but on the assumption of current polulation level!!!
Could you cover that useless apostrophe you put into the possessive pronoun its?
90 Years worth of energy for the nation with the largest population in the world seems like sufficient cause for China to claim that Tibet is part of China and always has been etc, despite the fact that it has been independant for much of its history (although its also been occupied by one power or another for much of the rest of that history of course).
If Tibet had its independence this would be a terrific resource for the country to take advantage of in modernizing itself. As it stands I am sure it will be used for Chinese benefit and not Tibetan.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
but much preferable to burning coal
So when was the concentration of methane in the atmosphere so high it caused this?
While there are mostly advantages in using this as a fuel, it might be an ecologic disaster to strip-mine the tundra. The Tibet - Qinghai Plateau is between 3 and 4,000 m above sea level and the climate is harsh. Areas that have been strip mined will recover slowly and the little soil that was there and allowed the tundra to grow will be removed, leaving only rocks and sands behind. It might take centuries to recover and will make life for the nomadic herders and the indigenous animals (many of them endangered) difficult if not impossible.
Over a decade ago ago when first heard of using frozen undersea methane deposits as a fuel source they were referred to as Methane Hydrate. Now, almost everywhere refers to them as Methane Clathrates. Why the change?
Correct me if I'm wrong but If the CO2 is liberated twenty times faster (or more) than the methane would be liberated naturally, then there is not a win-win...
It occupies an area of around 1,000 by 2,500 kilometers, and has an average elevation of over 4,500 meters.
The plateau is a high-altitude arid steppe interspersed with mountain ranges and large brackish lakes. Annual precipitation ranges from 100 mm to 300 mm and falls mainly as hailstorms. The southern and eastern edges of the steppe have grasslands which can sustainably support populations of nomadic herdsmen, although frost occurs for six months of the year. Permafrost occurs over extensive parts of the plateau. Proceeding to the north and northwest, the plateau becomes progressively higher, colder and drier, until reaching the remote Changthang region in the northwestern part of the plateau. Here the average altitude exceeds 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) and year-round temperatures average -4C, dipping to -40C in winter. As a result of this extremely inhospitable environment, the Changthang region (together with the adjoining Kekexili region) is the least populated region in Asia, and the third least populated area in the world after Antarctica and northern Greenland.
Wow, a Class L planet.
Someone go flick a match, let's see if we can get the earth back on it's axis after the Chilean earthquake, missing those 1.26 microseconds out of my day has been throwing me off all week.
People who follow my many rantings, I mean posts on Slashdot will not be surprised to know I am very happy that this seems to be a win-win scenario for reducing the amount of methane getting into the atmosphere, something I've been VERY concerned about (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1572576&cid=31371302&art_pos=7).
Unfortunately I am afraid that this may be another excuse for China to subjugate the Tibetan people. While Chinese apologists may claim they are lifting them out of feudal poverty, I would think that is a choice that the Tibetan people should make for themselves. (Even though Americans and Europeans used "the White Man's burden" as an excuse for their colonial actions, that didn't make them right). The Dalai Lama has claimed many times that he only wants CULTURAL autonomy for Tibet, unfortunately it appears as if this is one thing the Chinese don't want; they want to make it another "Han" province. So they claim, the Dalai Lama really wants full independence despite the fact he has never advocated that and has, in fact, welcomed Chinese control over and development of Tibet.
Being from Korea, a country that narrowly escaped having it's own cultural identity from being stamped out by colonial Japan makes me sensitive to Tibet's plight. My parent's were forced to learn Japanese, have Japanese names and were forbidden to learn Korean or Korean customs. (This is in addition to many documented atrocities like "sex slaves".). For almost fifty years the Japanese occupied Korea, only their defeat in WWII prevented them from succeeding in this cultural genocide. (I'm sure the Japanese said they were "civilizing" Korea). Unfortunately I doubt the U.S. or anyone else is going to come to Tibet's rescue; well at least if the Chinese are going to ravage Tibet, they might help save the environment. So let us acknowledge and shed a tear for Tibet's sacrifice for all mankind.
While we're on the subject of China, here's an (outlandish) prediction. In twenty years they will have become the most powerful country in the world; they should just be passing the GDP of the U.S. and will have a population of about 1.5 billion (India will be the same size but much poorer). In the meantime, Russia's population should have FALLEN to less than a tenth of China's or about 125 million (or about the same number of excess males in China!). So, what about the Chinese making Russia a "deal", we'll buy eastern Siberia from you or, if you refuse our entirely reasonable price we'll just take it with our vastly more powerful military. Sure we might have a little nasty nuclear war but we'll survive (especially if we've developed effective missile defenses) and believe me you won't survive OUR attack. Remember, we have lots of cannon fodder, I mean conscripts who we can make die, I mean are willing to die for our country!
Now eastern Siberia might not sound like much but, in twenty years with global warming, it could be a pretty "hot" property (sorry). With it's vast land area right next door to China proper and huge amounts of untapped natural resources it'll be just the thing they want. If they've figured out how to harvest methane from the thawing tundra for energy generation well, more "power" to them (sorry!).
[On the other hand, if China and Russia went to war, (or were "tricked" into it by some other meddling superpower) it would QUICKLY solve the population problem as well as probably rid the earth of some excess heat due to Nuclear Winter!]
If there's enough of that stuff to power China for 90 years, I don't think tons of methane will do. Millions of even billions of tons of methane would be more like it.
It's trapped in ice and not in the atmosphere at all. As long as it was trapped it contributed nothing to any theoretical greenhouse effect. (Ok so I think Al Gore is exaggerating things drastically so he can make a absolutely huge fortune on energy futures. I'm a little cynical.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
No, you don't understand Chinese thinking.
The combustible ice is merely a practical concern. As such, it's basically unimportant compared to the extremely vital matter of Never Losing Face Ever, which is probably the single most important core value in far-eastern culture. Not losing face is more important than life itself and *far* more important than minor things like a few petawatt-hours of energy.
You have to understand, if Tibet hadn't always been part of China, that would imply that the "liberation" of Tibet in the mid-twentieth century was an aggressive action, not a peaceful one, and that the PROC government acted in bad faith (especially as regards the Seventeen Point thing). Admitting such a thing would be an unfathomable loss of face and an unconscionable disgrace to every Chinese person. It would be better for the entire nation to commit ritual suicide than to allow such a thing to be said.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
This was kind of the point I was going to make, but I wasn't going to turn it into a reply that would get downvoted straight away as bait.
The assumption in the story was that it was going to melt anyway, if that is the case then using it for energy is of course a big win. But the obvious question is whether it was actually going to melt. I assume the deposits are old enough to have gone through an number of global temperature changes, so why would it all suddenly melt in the next 90 years?
I like to admire the Asian tundra on Google Earth, and think about what a paradise it must be for mosquito predators, birds and such. I guess now we will be trying to discover how much environmental degradation is required to crash that eco-system. Too bad.
Um... tundra is permanently frozen ground. Not a lot of mosquitoes can lay their eggs in a puddle of ice. Think frozen desert (Death Valley, not ice cream). You could even call it something like Mars on Earth. Not a big ecosystem to crash there.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I am sure that China's formerly communist (now nationalist/Han chauvinist) dictatorship won't be reminding anyone or allowing any debate inside the "People's Empire of China" that invading a peaceful and totally non-Chinese neighbouring nation of Tibet in 1950, resulting in over a million Tibetan deaths; brutally repressing the Tibetan people, their unique language (with Sanskrit-based script), their history, their Buddhist religion and their national identity while brainwashing Tibetans to believe that their pacifistic culture is inferior; wiping out practically all of the 6000 monasteries that served as Tibet religious and administrative centres and housed invaluable written records (burned) and precious ancient artifacts (melted for Mao's foreign reserves); exploiting Tibet's extensive and varied natural resources (precious minerals, metals, timber, various sources of energy) without native Tibetans having any say; keeping the Tibetans under constant surveillance and imposing upon them China's alien imperial language etc. amounts to genocidal colonialism.
But no, the current ultra-nationalist successor regimes of the world's most murderous dictator, the marxist Mao Zedong, have made the Final Solution in China's western neighbours (Tibet, East Turkestan aka Xinjiang and Southern Mongolia) a propaganda imperative in the name of expansionist "Han China's" unity and for them colonialism is merely the often-evoked accusation against the evil foreign powers.
So now Tibet, called the "Western Treasure house" in modern Chinese, is really facing an extensive surface stripping so that the colonizing Chinese (lead by Communist Party "princelings" and their cronies) can extract the mind-boggling amount of energy stored across the Tibetan Plateau?
If that wasn't enough, just recently a professor and member of Chinese Academy of Engineering (a Chinese Communist Party thinktank) revealed that "we foresee that in the coming decades, hundreds of millions of people will migrate to the western regions, where land is empty and resources are untapped"!
One must suppose that if Hitler had provided the West cheap capitalist services under his nazional-socialist policies, he too would've gained quiet acceptance for Nazi-Germany's Lebensraum expansion and resource grab, like China does today...
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
"and will have a population of about 1.5 billion"
I thought I remember reading projections somewhere, which indicate that China's population is soon supposed to begin a pretty rapid decline, due to several decades of 'birth control' measures imposed by the government? Contributing even further to that, I had heard that there is a large imbalance in the population ratio between males and females, because, since parents were limited to one child, many of them chose to abort girls and 'try again' until they had a boy? Because of the predominance of males, there are fewer females to become pregnant and birth the next generation, further contributing to long-term population decline?
Shouldn't those things be starting to have an effect 20 years from now?
No, tundra is permanently frozen subsoil. The surface layer of soil melts and causes the huge pools of standing water you see in all of the documentaries of the Arctic. Home to incredible amounts of mosquitoes. Truly unbelievable amounts. Really.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Um... tundra is permanently frozen ground. Not a lot of mosquitoes can lay their eggs in a puddle of ice.
More accurately, tundra is permanently frozen subsoil. In most areas the top layer of soil melts each summer, and due to the impermeable permafrost layer beneath, tundra areas tend to be very boggy.
As a result, Tundra areas can have some of the highest concentrations of mosquitoes in the world: http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-mosquito.htm
But as education and income increase, this population growth tends to level out.
People have more than two kids because they like to fuck and don't have/use birth control.
Then allow me to rephrase: As education and income increase, access to anticonceptives increases.
Good information. To quote Johnny Carson, "I did not know that."
Still, I'd hardly consider mosquitoes to be a valid reason to prevent energy exploration and exploitation of such areas, although I'm sure there are some that think every bug is sacred.
And, yes, I know there is other live forms there, but like ANWR, we are talking about extremely vast areas. It would be like not building a house in Houston because there is an endangered desert rat in El Paso.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
the commies'll make sure there's no one there:-(
contributing 2 rising sealevels;-)
The PROC government, 15% chance to act in bad faith on attack
No, you see. Tibet had all that explosive ice -- essentially weapons of mass destruction. And this threatened China, who didn't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. So Shock and Awe was the only answer, an invasion that would only last a few weeks, and be paid for with the oil.
Oh Sorry, were we talking about CHINA? I'm sure the Chinese feel that what happened to Tibet was fo their own good, just as most Americans think what happened in Iraq was for their own good. Amazing how propaganda can influence the masses, eh? Just keep on watching Faux News and you'll even believe that 99% of Americans don't want Health care reform...
Ah, ignorance is strength.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It looks like this article is referring to the Tibetan Plateau, more steppe than tundra, and even more sensitive to environmental damage. This stuff does not recover quickly from disturbance. And every bug IS sacred if you think your grandchildren might want to watch birds that migrate. The oceans are quite vast, yet it is distinctly possible we may have already permanently altered the entire system by polluting breeding areas and depleting or extirpating key species.
I've not yet been to Alaska, but I got out of the car once in Minnesota to get a better look at a moose. I then managed to fight my way back to the car through the solid masses of mosquitoes before being fatally exsanguinated. I pity anyone who takes a job at this nightmare.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
...but this is one of many possibilities 20 years from now, and probably not a likely one.
Apparently methane hydrate is not sexy enough. Come on people! next thing you know we will be surfing the intertubes and drinking brawndo. I lurk on slashdot because it represents a fairly intelligent perspective. Headlines such as this make me question the integrity of /.
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."
Using an estimate of approximately 50million people in 1492 (including 25million in the Aztec Empire and 12million in the Inca Empire), the lowest estimates give a death toll due from disease of an astonishing 80% by the end of the 16th century (8million people in 1650). Wikipedia
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
Welcome our Chinese Ice Burning Overlords!
how does 35 Billion translate to 90 years ? China is using 8Milion/day 8 * 365 = 2920 Million/year (2.9 Billion) (10 to the power of 9 or a thoutand million) so 35 Billion should last for for 12 years at the current consumption. 2.9 Billion + 35 years = 261 Billion dosent come close if you use 10 to the power of 12 for the definition of a billion.
It would be better for the entire nation to commit ritual suicide than to allow such a thing to be said.
We're waiting. Oh, but imagine the smell...
It's the same reason why the USA is in the middle east.
I think Tibet should harvest that energy and sell it to China and make a lot of money and use that money to improve Tibet.
Tibet became a province of China for a few hundred years. A hundred years ago, the people who destroyed the last dynasty of China and united the nation (the Nationalist Party which is the current ruling party of Taiwan, the Communist Party, and a bunch of democratic parties currently in mainland China) originally wanted to take the 18 original-Chinese provinces back from Manchu people (the ruling civilization of China's last dynasty), excluding Tibet etc.
That's originally. But if you know Chinese history, China breaks up into some 2 to 10+ countries every 250-400 years after its first unity. And the final goal and hope of every scholar and power are to unite the country. In those countries, many are formed by non-Chinese civilizations, and somehow, they also share the same goal, unite China, including themselves. Now back to modern history. When Republic of China was still fighting to unite the country, Tibet decided to join Republic of China. It break away again when the communist party come in power. But being in China for a few hundred years, most Chinese already see it as part of the country (and China have a lot of civilizations living in their own place within China all the time, so we're also used to that). So basically, the communist party and even Republic of China see it as part of the country. It's more like "unite the country" instead of "invade it". Note that Republic of China (Taiwan) does not recognize the independence of Mongolia until a few years ago, under the very same reasoning, and many Chinese people who know how the history is still very angry about that. Because Chinese already see the Qing Dynasty area as "China". And the rule of Chinese based culture is, a country always have a chance to break up, but must finally be united.
Anyway, the "liberation" (in Communist term) of Tibet had never been and will never be see as "invading" in China, so I don't think we'll ever see that as "lose face". It's never in Chinese question. Also, it IS a peaceful action. In fact, a very peaceful one. How did the government of the then Tibet and Dalai Lama remained safe after the communist's conquer? Because they were just forced out of the palace and power but were not hurt. It was a war to unite another piece of land in Chinese view, and this is probably as peaceful as it could have been.
No, I'm not communist. No I'm not from mainland. But I know the common Chinese view better than you. Don't use western view when trying to interpret other culture's history. It simply doesn't work because people don't think the same way as you.
Mod informative. With all of the anti-China crap that we see around here we need more posts like this that attempt to explain instead of accuse.
1. Always turn off your vehicle engine while VISITING TIBET.
2. Stay near the vehicle while VISITING TIBET.
3. Never smoke, light matches, or use lighters while VISITING TIBET.
4. Cellular phones and other electronic devices may have the potential to emit electrical charges, and should therefore be left in the vehicle during YOUR VISIT TO TIBET. (There have been no reported fires due to cell phone use.)
5. Do not get back into your vehicle during YOUR VISIT TO TIBET. If you must re-enter your vehicle, discharge static electricity buildup when you get out by touching the outside metal portion of your vehicle.
6. When dispensing FROZEN METHANE into a portable FROZEN METHANE can, use only an approved container. Always place the container on the ground to avoid a static electricity ignition of FROZEN METHANE vapors. Containers should never be filled inside a vehicle, in the trunk, on the bed of a pickup or flatbed truck, or on the floor of a trailer. The bed of the truck and the bed liner act as insulators, as does the carpeting in a car or in its trunk, which may allow static electricity to build up in the can while it is being filled.
It's not crap, because regardless of how the people living in what is now known as communist China see it, it's wrong to rule over a people without their consent. Wrong. It's good that we know how this came to be, but what the communists have done is Wrong.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Don't use western view when trying to interpret other culture's history. It simply doesn't work because people don't think the same way as you.
The view you described is not in any way unique to your culture - almost every empire in history used the pretext of "taking back what was taken from us", "re-unifying ancient ancestral lands" etc to justify its land grabs.
USSR was a very typical example of that - e.g. the 1939 invasion of Poland is known as "liberation of western Ukraine and western Belarus" in Soviet historiography - and there are similar sentiments in Russia today.
According to some wildlife biologists, the leading cause of death in caribou is anemia from mosquito bites. That they're so thick they'll drain you dry is just barely a joke.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
That's a fair position to take. We should be critical of all governments. But scroll through the comments here or on any other /. article related to China and you will see plenty of regurgitated anti-China propaganda that does nothing to advance the conversation. That is what I am referring to as crap.
And Minnesota mosquitoes are mere twin-engine jobs. Alaska mosquitoes are jet-propelled. :)
Seriously, in MN you can get by with a good coating of OFF! but in AK it won't even slow them down. Folks there use a thick slather of "bear grease" to avoid terminal mosquito-caused anemia (as I mentioned above, actually thought to be the leading cause of death in caribou).
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I helped build the stage for the Rose Bowl show. One guy slipped on frost and bounced down 60 feet of scaffolding (think Homer Simpson) then got up and went back to work. People wonder why I laugh when I hear an Eagles song.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
burn it? BURN it? ... what are we going to fill our air-ships with? lead?
crazy. everybody knows that the most valuable
resource on THIS planet is helium. it is a noble
gas so you cannot "burn/react" with some other
element and store it, say like you can store hydrogen
with oxygen.
once released, it disappears into outer space, bye-bye.
100% of all helium deposits in earths crust is a by-product
from uranium decay (alpha-radiation).
SO
NOPE, methane. methane is lighter then air, and if heated up (not burn)
gets even lighter. >: P
Current best estimate is that China's population will never exceed 10% more than what it is today.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I'm not sorry for not speaking english as a first language, nor am I sorry for making an obvious mistake.
I *am* sorry however for the way you treat it. I hope you'll have a life anyway. It was great meeting you...
Yeah, I reckon "Outa my muhfuckin' cab. I don't give a..." would've been the correct response, but I just love that carpet gag.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
On the bait: it was not intended, but I just had to get it off my chest. It turned out to result in a very informative reply that opened my eyes to more sides on the issue. It's allways nice to learn new things...
The 'melting anyway' assumption triggered me. I hate the negative thinking surrounding the climate debate, as if we're just going down the road no matter what. There are so many actors that affect the temperature and blaming just one we probably can't downsize (given the sociological and political situations) does more harm than good.
I think it's way better to try and find solutions that can drastically enable cooling than fight an impossible war on bringing back CO2 emissions...
Just my 2 cents, IANASc
I think you are making some assumptions when saying the carbon-13 ratio should be decreasing, don't you have to take into account the carbon-13 ratio of the material you are burning.
Also this chart is less than understandable, could you explain what the "sigma 13 C" on the vertical axis means. And why the scale is in negative and how this supports your point.
Thanks for the interesting explanation. Unfortunately for China, in the West we see the People's Republic of China as invaders who are viciously oppressing the people of Tibet against their will. I imagine none of us give Mongolia a second's thought mind you.
The differing attitudes between whats accepted as the truth in the PRC, and what we see as the truth in the west is going to continue to cause friction in cases like this.
The same thing is true with regards to Taiwan. I think that the US and the PRC will come to a conflict over Taiwan at some point in the future in fact. The PRC is certainly preparing for it.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
This strikes me as being your classic To Good To Be True story. It has long been known that there was ice made of Methane and Water - frozen together. But since when did it exist at the surface? This ice normally requires the pressure of the deep seas to keep it from reverting to it's gaseous form. How is it that they found this where it could be used on the surface? From: U.S. Geological Survey Marine and Coastal Geology Program >Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters, and where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer several hundred meters thick.> ....
Me thinks this story has some credibility problems.
Sorry, the charts are admittedly a little confusing. The "delta 13 C" value is a change in the carbon-13 concentration, but the y-axis on the graphs is upside-down. The graphs show an upward trend, which means the carbon-13 change is becoming more negative -- i.e. it's concentration is decreasing.
This does take the carbon-13 ratio of the fuel into account. It can be verified that fossil fuels have a lower concentration of carbon-13, and this is because they are a by-product of photosynthesis and photosynthesis favours lighter isotopes of carbon.
Thank you. You have made my point much more strongly than I was capable of doing myself.
China's insistence on Tibet having always been a part of China (a view that is not widely embraced outside the Chinese-speaking world, certainly not in the West) is deeply embeded in Chinese thinking about history, politics, and nationality. The same thing is true of the Taiwan issue ("One China Policy").
So like I said, it has absolutely nothing to do with minor practical concerns like some combustible ice that might be useful as a power source (as the grandparent post claimed). The ice is, compared with Tibet, relatively unimportant to the Chinese.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
That's cool.