METHANE AND MADONNA

POST # 152

In an effort to continue the theme from last week's post, that being, the melting of the Arctic sea ice in the near future, I thought that I would write about methane today.

Whether the sea ice disappears this year, or a little later,  the bottom line is that the Arctic is warming up at a significant rate.  One of the many side effects of this warming is the release of methane gas from both the permafrost and the sea bed.  In particular, there is an area on the northern coast of Russia which is called the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS for short). Here, the water is relatively shallow, so the escaping methane gas doesn't have far to travel to be released into the atmosphere.  In the short term, methane is approximately 105 times more powerful a greenhouse gas on a 20 year time scale than carbon dioxide.  One of the scientists who has spent years studying what is happening on the ESAS is Dr. Natalia Shakhova.  (see this link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx1Jxk6kjbQ
She has warned that a 50 gigaton "burp" of methane is "highly possible at any time."  This would be the equivalent of at least  1000 gigatons of carbon dioxide.  To put this amount into perspective,  we have released approximately 1475 gigatons of carbon dioxide since 1850.   In other words, if, or more likely, when this "burp"escapes it will have a tremendous heating effect.  It's just a matter of time, really.  Perhaps in 2015, we'll get two for two, total sea ice loss AND a 50 gigaton release of methane.

Another scientist who has been studying the Arctic for decades is Dr. Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University.  When asked recently, "do you think civilization could survive a release of 50 gigatons of methane" his answer was short and to the point, "No, I do not think it can."

If Mr. Spock from Star Trek fame was to be observing what is going on, he would probably just say to Captain Kirk,  "Fascinating Captain".  He would be looking at it from a physics and chemistry point of view, and being a Vulcan, he wouldn't have to contend with any emotion to cloud the facts.

So that's it in a nutshell for today's methane lesson.  There's plenty more detail that can be found online for anyone who has the curiosity to look,  however I doubt that many will.  A good article that highlights the methane situation is written by Dahr Jamail and can be found here.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/28490-the-methane-monster-roars

And finally, today's post wouldn't be complete without mentioning Madonna, aka my mom as this would have been her 99th birthday.  She exited the planetary stage around about the time that the methane began to be noticed by the scientists.   Perhaps she knew something. :-)

Happy trails,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer