Aghast over Gases
Bad news: Earth is farting 40,000 year old gases. And it’s caused by global warming. And it’s accelerating global warming. It’s caused by global warming because the gases have been sequestered in the permafrost in Northern Siberia, which are melting due to the warming climate. It’s accelerating global warming because it’s methane, which is twenty times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So, global warming leads to the release of methane, which leads to global warming. It’s a viscous cycle.
More bad news: We’re approaching a “tipping point” in climate change. In case the term “tipping point” is not descriptive enough, I’ll give you an analogy. Imagine that earth has been teetering over a kettle of boiling water. Suddenly, one little finger of one tiny hand gives it the teeniest of nudges and … ouch! We fall in. While that is possibly a bit of an exaggeration, research suggests that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are approaching a level at which the rate will begin to increase drastically and, most likely, uncontrollably.
Terrifying, right? Global warming is our biggest terror threat. If we can have a War on Terror, can’t we at least fight to save our planet?
Mac said,
September 9, 2006 @ 9:59 am
Although CH4 may be 20 times more potent than CO2, it doesn’t stay in the atmosphere very long. Within decades it reacts with oxygen or returns with rainfall. It’s obviously a serious problem, but not a catastrophe by itself.
The “tipping point” problem scares me more. There is so much CO2 dissolved in the oceans, and so little understanding of what’s going on there.
monkey said,
September 11, 2006 @ 9:36 pm
The “tipping point” for CO2 isn’t scary just because it’s CO2. A few degrees in global temperature change can cause major planet-scale changes. Since methane also acts as a greenhouse gas, it will help to speed up that climate shift - and a few decades in the atmosphere is long enough. I can’t say that I know 100% of what is going on (no one does - I mean, I haven’t done ALL my research), but methane is something to be worried about. Methane bubbles can also be toxic (see this case). And it’s not just methane dissolved in permafrost, there are huge amounts of methane in sea floor sediments.