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- truthfightsback, on 09/25/2008, -0/+5"Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
"In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.
"They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years." - jollyspaniard, on 09/27/2008, -0/+4It's too early to declare the end of the world is nigh but this is about as serious as it gets. Unfortunately with everything else that is going on I fear this news will get lost in the noise.
Twenty years from now nobody will remember or care about Wall Street's current woes but they'll be living with and painfuly aware of the consequences of this. - jericho4119, on 09/25/2008, -0/+4Not for nothing, but wouldn't this more or less mean the game is over?
If the permafrost has already started to release methane, there does not seem to be any amount of greenhouse gas reduction we can implement to reverse the greenhouse effect, thereby lowering the temperature enough for the permafrost to return to being permanently frozen. - goddude, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3I like articles like this because they reinforce my belief that we don't totally understand global warming.
- cheezintern, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3silent but deadly?
- j1ggy, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3All these years of human advancement and we're wiped out by a gigantic ocean fart.
- teyesahr, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2This really does point to the meaninglessness of a lot of the "work" that we engage in. Shall we all twitter away whilst the world burns? I find myself wondering if a second Great Depression might not be a good thing - a shrinking GDP means shrinking emissions. On the other hand, that seems really pessimistic, and what I'd really like to see is our economy strengthen itself in real and fundamental ways, such that its resilience increases and we are able to transition away from our energy-intensive M.O.
- WiseAcre, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2We're *****. I'm moving to the mountains. Who's with me!?
- sipsyrup, on 09/25/2008, -1/+2Throw a match at it!
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