This is just so not good

[Richard D]

Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the atmosphere. Once released, that methane gas would speed up global warming by trapping the Earth’s heat radiation about 20 times more efficiently than does the better-known greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

An MIT paper appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research online Aug. 29 elucidates how this underground methane in frozen regions would escape and also concludes that methane trapped under the ocean may already be escaping through vents in the sea floor at a much faster rate than previously believed. Some scientists have associated the release, both gradual and fast, of subsurface ocean methane with climate change of the past and future.

“The sediment conditions under which this mechanism for gas migration dominates, such as when you have a very fine-grained mud, are pervasive in much of the ocean as well as in some permafrost regions,” said lead author Ruben Juanes, the ARCO Assistant Professor in Energy Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“This indicates that we may be greatly underestimating the methane fluxes presently occurring in the ocean and from underground into Earth’s atmosphere,” said Juanes. “This could have implications for our understanding of the Earth’s carbon cycle and global warming.”

(snip)

Using their model, as well as seismic data and core samples from a hydrate-bearing area of ocean floor (Hydrate Ridge, off the coast of Oregon), Juanes and Jain found that methane gas is very likely spewing out of vents in the sea floor at flow rates up to 1 million times faster than if it were migrating as a dissolved substance in water making its way through the oceanic sediment — a process previously thought to dominate methane transport.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090902133637.htm

[Systematic Chaos]

1. We don't even know how truly screwed we are yet.

If you don't have any idea what a "Canfield Ocean" is, then you'll definitely want to grab a copy of "Under a Green Sky" by Peter D. Ward. Just keep plenty of toilet paper at the ready as you flip the pages because I guarantee you'll be frightened enough to risk losing your bowels.

It's already an established fact that the increase in carbon dioxide we've brought on in just over 100 years is something unduplicated in the history of the planet which has been traced with core and sediment samples. The fun is just starting. :cry:

[DCKit]

2. Pshaw. What's a few trillion tons of methane?

It's only 13-24x as powerful as CO2 in regards to global warming (I've heard the whole range used), and the sky on fire might be really cool.

If there's not already a Bible passage that covers this, I'm sure they'll make one up. Those Corporate Dominionists are a crafty bunch.