Saturday, April 3, 2010
NOME ALASKA: BURNING ICE/METHANE RELEASE
Here is a very interesting short video from ABC News relating to methane released as permafrost melts in the Arctic. Some are blaming global warming on this release of a greenhouse gas much stronger than CO2. So strong in fact that some scientists are stating that the release is more than all of the greenhouse gases ever caused by man. New theories are blaming the sea ice melt on this methane release. Click here for a very interesting report. My only footnote to this video is that the methane shown is from a lake, with the methane evident as it collects under the ice. If it is a lake then the gas would have escaped any way without further warming much the same as 'swamp gas' in the Southern United States. Any night you can see the release of the gases as they actually fluoresce on many occassions. These used to give rise to legends of ghosts in the South before the cause was known.
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This article/video is a bit dated. With no global warming singe 1998 approx. positive forcing as described here is dubious at best. However there is significant volcanic activity occurring throughout the arctic that may be causing methane releases. Perhaps we could mine methane as a source of fuel thereby reducing the quantity of free methane that may be contributing to greenhouse affects.
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