How Much Should You Worry About an Arctic Methane Bomb?

barlevg sends this excerpt from an article at MotherJones: "It was a stunning figure: $60 trillion. Such could be the cost, according to a recent commentary in Nature, of 'the release of methane from thawing permafrost beneath the East Siberian Sea, off northern Russia... a figure comparable to the size of the world economy in 2012.' More specifically, the paper described a scenario in which rapid Arctic warming and sea ice retreat lead to a pulse of undersea methane being released into the atmosphere. How much methane? The paper modeled a release of 50 gigatons of this hard-hitting greenhouse gas (a gigaton is equal to a billion metric tons) between 2015 and 2025. This, in turn, would trigger still more warming and gargantuan damage and adaptation costs. ... According to the Nature commentary, that methane 'is likely to be emitted as the seabed warms, either steadily over 50 years or suddenly.' Such are the scientific assumptions behind the paper's economic analysis. But are those assumptions realistic—and could that much methane really be released suddenly from the Arctic? A number of prominent scientists and methane experts interviewed for this article voiced strong skepticism about the Nature paper.'"

Comments

"Methane Bomb"?

[Andrio]

Oh god, here come the jokes.

Sounds like a lot of methane.

[mrjb]

Anyone got a match?

Re:My experience

[ackthpt]

Cue bean eating scene from Blazing Saddles.

How 'bout some more beans, Mr. Taggart?

Taggart: [fans his hat in the air] I'd say you've had enough!

Thinking outside the box

[Provocateur]

Instead of the Arctic, let's work with the Antarctic, to get opposite results. Less methane, and more good news all round., leaving the cows to rejoice at still being Number One methane producer.

Re:Dog and cats! Living together! Mass hysteria!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard of confirmation bias and I STRONGLY AGREE with it.

Re:Catastrophe?

[JTsyo]

Just Atlantis