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Warmer Pacific Ocean Could Release Millions of Tons of Methane
vinces99 writes: Off the U.S. West Coast, methane gas is trapped in frozen layers below the seafloor. New research from the University of Washington shows that water at intermediate depths is warming enough to cause these carbon deposits to melt, releasing methane into the sediments and surrounding water. Researchers found that water off the coast of Washington is gradually warming at a depth of 500 meters (about a third of a mile down), the same depth where methane transforms from a solid to a gas. The research suggests that ocean warming could be triggering the release of a powerful greenhouse gas (abstract).
Scientists believe global warming will release methane from gas hydrates worldwide, but most of the focus has been on the Arctic. The new paper estimates that, from 1970 to 2013, some 4 million metric tons of methane has been released from hydrate decomposition off Washington's coast. That's an amount each year equal to the methane from natural gas released in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout off the coast of Louisiana, and 500 times the rate at which methane is naturally released from the seafloor.
Scientists believe global warming will release methane from gas hydrates worldwide, but most of the focus has been on the Arctic. The new paper estimates that, from 1970 to 2013, some 4 million metric tons of methane has been released from hydrate decomposition off Washington's coast. That's an amount each year equal to the methane from natural gas released in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout off the coast of Louisiana, and 500 times the rate at which methane is naturally released from the seafloor.
Come back in about 20 years. AGW will be have topped the Piltdown Man as the greatest scientific fraud of all time.
Pretty much every prediction they've made to date have been proven wrong (we are not having a Katrina-strength hurricane every year, England is not snow-free, Hockey Stick never happened, etc). But the basic idea that man is evil (esp. Western man) and that industrialization is bad resonates deep with those who want to believe, and they're gonna have a hard time letting it go. And of course Algore and IPCC and others who profit from the scaremongering will keep egging it on.
But I figure 20 more years of their dire predictions not coming to pass aught to be enough for most people to wake up and smell the bullshit.
Most of the debate comes from industries who stand to loose from climate based taxes.
On the one side, you have governments, NGOs and bankers who stand to make trillions from taxes and 'carbon trading', and energy companies who can benefit from destroying coal mining.
On the other you have... uh.... some bloggers and stuff.
Back in the real world, all the computer models completely failed to predict the last twenty years or so of nothing much happening. Just as the models that predicted a new ice age in the 70s completely failed to predict twenty years of warming.
This is what gets me. The climate change types seem to have both science and scientists on their side, but their predictions just ain't happening. They seem to enjoy saying "well, we tweaked our models, this time we're right". Meanwhile you've got the dipshits claiming the sea level will rise by 6 feel over the next century even if we stop dumping carbon in the air now. Not to mention issues like putting your temperature recording stations in the middle of cites, which are naturally hotter than a 12 square mile meadow.
Color me confused, and too lazy to spend the hundreds of hours it would take for me to properly educate myself on all the issues.
Most of the debate comes from industries who stand to loose from climate based taxes.
Or from the various powerful special interests that stand to gain from climate-based spending and taxes.