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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Frozen Methane megatons threaten mass release


Frozen Methane megatons threaten mass release
Preliminary results from measuring melting methane in the arctic suggests that the thousands of megatonnes of frozen methane may be melting much quicker than previously suspected. A Russian research ship from Stockholm University has recorded chimneys of bubbling methane gas churning up the ocean surface leading to the possibility of a massive jump in temperatures because methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a warming agent, leading to run away catastrophic climate change - and yet politicians in NZ still refuse to take the matter seriously.

9 Comments:

At 30/9/08 6:06 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bomber you moron, if you did some research you would see how narrow the absorption band for methane is.

It is 20 times worse than CO2 only at a very narrow wavelength, hardly an accurate comparison.

 
At 30/9/08 9:07 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

and the solution is------?

 
At 30/9/08 9:46 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"and the solution is----?"

For a start we could ignore politically motivated windbags like Bomber

 
At 30/9/08 11:58 pm, Blogger Gareth said...

Actually, bomber, the "global warming potential" for methane is actually 25 times CO2 over 100 years, but 72 times over 20 years. The latter's the relevant timescale for rapid release of methane. Much more at my place...

(Your commenters would do well to refer to AR4).

 
At 1/10/08 6:51 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For a start we could ignore politically motivated windbags like Bomber

If 'political windbags like bomber' had been listened to earlier, and let's be honest he has been banging this drum a hell of a lot longer than you have Anon, perhaps we wouldn't be on the point of no return. Still denying climate change is happening Anon?

 
At 1/10/08 2:03 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

the sky is falling! the sky is falling!

 
At 1/10/08 6:38 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

gareth you forgot to mention that methane is only worse than CO2 for a tiny percentage of the suns light.

But i guess the truth wouldn't have the same alarmist impact.

 
At 1/10/08 11:01 pm, Blogger Gareth said...

anon: you need to read up on what "global warming potential" means. AR4 is your friend.

 
At 2/10/08 6:19 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

gareth: 'reading up on something' should mean more than just reading wikipedia.

you will notice the wikipedia article on global warming potential mentions light absorption but nothing about wavelengths, which is a substantial omission.

 

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