Private donors have pledged $41 million to the Woodwell Climate Research Center to monitor thawing of permafrost in the Arctic. Buried beneath the Arctic Ocean are 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon. This carbon is more than humans have released into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. The problem is that global warming is causing the permafrost to thaw, and 140 million tons of carbon dioxide and 5.3 million tons of methane are already escaping into the atmosphere.
The danger is really methane, as molecule for molecule, this gas is from 20 to 100 times more dangerous for global warming than carbon dioxide. Thus, those 60 billion tons of methane are the equivalent of at least 1200 billion tons of carbon, compared to the current estimate of 560 billion tons of carbon.
Further, there is a
lot more methane stored as methane hydrates in the ocean than on land. There is more potential fuel contained in these methane deposits than all the coal, oil and natural gas reserves on land. Today, it's a big guess how much methane is in the sea, but current estimates range from 100 to 530,000 billion tons, with a more reliable range of 1000 billion tons to 5000 billion tons.
Most of these methane reserves are concentrated near the coastline.
The danger I fear is that the Ring of Fire in the Pacific is also located in the same region:
- Contains 850 to 1000 active volcanoes.
- The four largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last 11,700 years have occurred here.
- Eruptions from 1900 to 2013:
In short, this is
The Venus Syndrome. A cataclysmic eruption of several volcanoes in close proximity to these methane hydrate deposits, disturbing the meta-stable condition, releasing the methane into the atmosphere, called the
Clathrate Gun Hypothesis. This sudden release has resulted in a variety of extinction events in our geological history.
The next one could result in the Venus Syndrome. Read three of my publications in the
Huffington Post.
Why do I call this end of all life event
The Venus Syndrome? At least a billion years ago Venus suffered a runaway greenhouse effect. Today the
atmosphere at the surface is at around 900 F, with a pressure equivalent to an ocean depth of 0.6 miles. You would be crushed.
Such doomsday talk deserves a lighter ending.
Venus Syndrome by Minami Nitta, an anime character. Perhaps a more appropriate song representing this end of life catastrophe is provided by a progressive metal band called Venus Syndrome, here with
Sun Inside Me.
Typhoon Malaka formed On April 7, attained hurricane strength on the 11th, and is now at 132 MPH, with gusts up to 161 MPH. The eye is moving along at 13 MPH in the North Northeast direction, the track is currently away from the Philippines towards Japan. All models, however, show Malaka easing well east away from the country.
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Private donors have pledged $41 million to the Woodwell Climate Research Center to monitor thawing of permafrost in the Arctic. Buried beneath the Arctic Ocean are 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon. This carbon is more than humans have released into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. The problem is that global warming is causing the permafrost to thaw, and 140 million tons of carbon dioxide and 5.3 million tons of methane are already escaping into the atmosphere.
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