A methane fart in the Gulf is not my concern.

What does concern me is the trillions of tons of Methane gas trapped in the Permafrost up in the Arctic Regions. Up until recently, this has been frozen solid. Well, as it defrosts, Methane gas is released, accelerating global warming which releases more Methane making things even hotter. Get the picture?

That is the scenario that scares me, because it is happening right now.

Oh snap. I did't know Methane gas got out, yet. That's not good, not good at all. :blink:

We're not even on the food chain anymore. Technology kind of eliminated that. The whole 6.7 billion won't survive, but humankind will be one of the last species standing.

Positive feedback svcks!

Dose that mean the "go green" stuff is something I dont have to do because we are altready in a cycle that will kill us ? (just making the most of a bad situation).

Great.. The Earth has to fart and we die because of it. :swear:

Just another reason why one should be critical of what one reads, since I rather doubt you actually went to the poles yourself and checked whether or not they are really melting at any noticeable rate.

Not getting political...the "go green" nonsense is just that...nonsense. It has minimal impact and is mostly to make you feel good.

It'd be fitting if the planted decided to take care of humanity like some pre-teen scraping off a pimple. :flamethrower:

Siberia as well.

Reducing our reliance on foreign oils? Check

Reducing pollution of our environment? Check (look at cities like Mexico City or Los Angeles. Smog smog everywhere. Look at the side of busy highways, covered in plastic bottles. Non-bio degradable plastic bottles that just sit there and sit there)

Actually making CHEAPER alternatives? Check (halogen lights save quite a bit of energy vs incandescent and yet produce just as much light. When we switched all of our lightbulbs to halogen, we actually saw a significant savings on our electric bill)

Even if we aren't somehow saving the environment, there is no reason not to do these things, because they clean things up, make things cheaper, and make us less reliant on a fuel that will one day be gone forever and pollutes our air.

On a note about BP: I haven't seen anyone mention that they apparently got the well capped.

I live near enough the arctic circle to testify the permafrost is melting. Since CCNA is a good friend, he will take my word for it.

Uh I should add that the big theory I read about the 250 million year ago "They almost all Die event" was an oxygen breath/ methane expelling bacteria bloom (Okay, so usually only Algae bloom, so sue me), not a methane getting warm and leaking out of the ground accident thing

Too much methane from those bacteria fed excess methane into the enviroment, and after a bit of time, the huge amount of Methane messed up the atmosphere, and to cut a long story short, the top of the oceans froze solid!
Temperatures world wide plunged to -56 F. 20 away from the point at which Carbon Dioxide freezes, which would prevent recovery forever.

But that's what I heard. Bacteria, they will doom us all! Or, it could have been algae, but I don't think they can produce methane.
All I know, is that when the methane level got too high, a new type of bacteria evolved, methane breathing, oxygen expelling bacteria.
The Earth is smart.

"AHHHH!"

So, don't worry about BP. Worry about things you can't see.

They put a cap on, but they're not sure if it's working. I have doubts that it will work. Even if it does, BP's name is pretty much unsalvageable.

First of all, how can you see that permafrost is melting? Permafrost is frozen earth, down to quite considerable depths in many places.

Second, from what I can gather from the research on the subject, whether or not melting of the permafrost poses a significant risk of releasing dangerous quantities of methane into the atmosphere has still not been established with certainty.

It is not difficult to see previously always solid ground that you could not dig in because it was frozen ice becoming a swamp. Tundra turned into standing water. Or to see trees growing in places they never grew before. Or glaciers receding. Or no ice along the sea in Barrow where there was always ice. :shrug:

It's as real as real can be.

I like to quote smart people




..once in a blue moon, I get to quote myself :woot:

I saved all that canned food for nothing?? :banghead:

Anecdotal evidence, non?

I reckon such conclusions would need more detailed studies.

You asked her if she's seen if for herself.

She has.

Have you?

..and finding http://permafrost.gi.alaska.edu/about was a no brainer.
Knock yourself out, it's all there, and scientifically verified by the people living just to the left of Summer.
Geophysical Institute University of Alaska Fairbanks <-- sounds credible to me

edit
I think Fairbanks is south of her, but that nitpicking

editer
Whoops, more like eastwards.

Thank you, that's very helpful

Still not sold on the idea that the release of methane will be as cataclysmic as CCNA stated, though.

Well this thread proved popular :mellow:

First you said, "have you seen it" when science was being discussed and when I said, in fact I have seen the evidence of it with my own eyes, you say it's anecdotal evidence, which it would be if there were no scientific studies to support what I saw. :shrug:

Make up your mind. Do you want the scientific evidence? Or do you want to know if we have seen it? Or both? Andy gave you a link to the research again and I've told you a small bit of what I've witnessed. If you don't want to believe it fine, but when you ask and receive what you asked for, I would think then if you wanted more, you would just ask for more instead of complaining someone gave you what you asked for.

Next time, ask for exactly what you want. What you really really want.

another one... the gletsers that feed the Ganges river in India are melting at alarming rate. Estimates run between twenty and sixty years before they melt completely, drying up the river for good..

can we have another thread, pweese? :angel: