Do these methane bubbles signal the start of rapid climate change?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/09/do-these-methane-bubbles-signal-the-start-of-rapid-climate-change/



Do these methane bubbles signal the start of rapid climate change?
By John Light, billmoyers.com
Saturday, August 9, 2014 14:48 EDT

First it was mysterious craters appearing in Siberia — possibly the result of the Earth belching methane as permafrost thaws and collapses.

Then scientists observed methane gas bubbling to the surface from the sea floor in the Arctic Ocean, where for eons it lay trapped in a flammable slush. The researchers who discovered the plumes — a joint team of Americans, Swedes and Russians on an expedition called the SWERUS-C3 — suspect the methane is escaping due to an influx of warmer water from the Atlantic Ocean, which, in turn, could be tied to climate change.

The release of methane on a large scale has long worried scientists. The greenhouse gas is 20 times more damaging to the Earth over a 100-year period than CO2, and is even more potent in the short term. Should the deposits trapped within the Arctic escape into the air, it could kick off a highly destructive climate feedback loop: The methane would cause rapid warming, which would melt more of the Arctic, which would release more methane, which would cause more warming.

This eventuality was the subject of an ominous commentary published in Nature last summer. It placed the cost of methane escaping into the atmosphere at $60 trillion — the size of the world economy. (Some climatologists argued that the article went too far.)

[joshcryer]

1. Yes.

[another_liberal]

2. They say it's going to smell really bad too . . .

Beach front property will be getting a bunch cheaper pretty soon.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Combine it with the deniers heads

Exploding and we will have a mess.

Anything to bring down property taxes apparently.

[cantbeserious]

3. Obviously

eom

[littlemissmartypants]

5. ...

The wet places will get wetter, dry places dryer.

[drynberg]

6. The Smell, although nasty, is the least of our true worries about methane bubbles

Oh, what have we done?

[PSPS]

7. Here's more on this depressing phenomenon

[Dustlawyer]

8. "( Some climatologists argue the article went too far.)." They have always under estimated

the speed and effects of climate change, who's to say they aren't this time? These "some scientist" wouldn't happen to be funded by BP or The American Petroleum Institute would they?

[BKLawyer]

9. Sigh ... no ...

If one believes the ocean heat content numbers the heat content numbers add up to a warming of ... wait for it ... 0.09 Deg. C.

The heat content of the World Ocean for the 0–2000 m layer increased by 24.0 +/- 1.9 10^22 J (2S.E.) corresponding to a rate of 0.39 W m2 (per unit area of the World Ocean) and a volume mean warming of 0.09C.

Seen here on the NOAA website.

And don't worry about all the heat transferring back to the atmosphere and frying us ... from the same paper at footnote 21 ...

We have estimated an increase of 24 10^22 J representing a volume mean warming of 0.09C of the 0–2000 m layer of the World Ocean. If this heat were instantly transferred to the lower 10 km of the global atmosphere it would result in a volume mean warming of this atmospheric layer by approximately 36C (65F). This transfer of course will not happen; earth’s climate system simply does not work like this. But this computation does provide a perspective on the amount of heating that the earth system has undergone since 1955.

So, in any event, if you want to believe 0.09 Deg. C overall increase in ocean temps caused this ... well ...

[NickB79]

10. You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

The heat content of the World Ocean for the 0–2000 m layer increased by 24.0 +/- 1.9 10^22 J (2S.E.) corresponding to a rate of 0.39 W m2 (per unit area of the World Ocean) and a volume mean warming of 0.09C.

Except that the article is talking about warm ocean CURRENTS, which are defined as areas of water that are NOT of mean temperature, flowing into the Arctic from the Atlantic and initiating the methane releases. You know, the same warm current that keeps Northern Europe from being temperate rather than mostly frozen. The mean ocean temperature here means very little to this particular phenomenon.

And no one is arguing that heat released from the oceans will "fry us"; they're saying the methane released will trap even more solar radiative heating from the sun, just like we've seen CO2 do over the past 150 years.

Jeez....

[BKLawyer]

11. Yep

And the point is that there has been no overall warming in the ocean unless you want to consider a 0.09 Deg C increase something that matters. Please tell me how the current or ocean circulation can be affected by such a tiny change of 0.09 Deg. C. Ok, so its a change in current. That's like a natural variation. But to then try to attribute it to "climate change" is out of all proportion. And yes, I have an engineering degree too thank you very much.