The news has lately headlined the exposure of Mammoth bones in the melting tundra in the Arctic and Siberia, but little has been said about the sinister time bomb buried there. It is something I alluded to in a post in my old Opera blog.
There are tremendous quantities of greenhouse gasses (the result of the decomposition of organics) trapped in ice-like structures in the cold northern mud and at the bottom of the seas. These ices (Clathrates), contain 3,000 times as much methane as is in the atmosphere, and methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
As I forecast, this temperature increase has started the release of this noxious gas into the atmosphere, and it will accelerate abruptly with a very small incremental rise in global temps. Now, there is 400 gigatons of methane locked in the frozen arctic tundra, and once this chain reaction starts, it will all be released rapidly.
When this occurs, it will result in runaway global warming. It has happened in the past, and the results were dramatic. The latest excursion occurred about 55 million years ago during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when methane releases caused rapid warming and massive die-offs, disrupting the climate for more than 100,000 years.
And, 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, a series of methane releases came close to wiping out all life on Earth. At that time, almost ninety-four percent of the marine species present in the fossil record disappeared suddenly as oxygen levels plummeted in a chemical reaction, and air temperature rose dramatically.
Over the ensuing 500,000 years, a few species struggled to re-establish themselves and diversify once again, but it took 20 million to 30 million years for even rudimentary coral reefs and forests to arise. In some areas, it took more than 100 million years for ecosystems to reach their former healthy diversity.
Even without the effect of Solar output variations, Cosmic rays, and so forth, if we continue with technologically enhanced consumerism and the industrialization of third-world countries, we are doomed for sure. At present, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, burning fossil fuels releases more than 150 times the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by volcanoes – the equivalent of nearly 17,000 additional volcanoes the size of Hawaii’s Kilauea.
It seems that to move forward, we must go back. But, not by the way the savages in the Middle East are attempting. In the USA, we may be overwhelmed by the sudden mass migration of 13 million Californians as the state runs out of water in the near future (less than five years). The surface water is vanishing, and the underground aquifers in the state have been pumped almost dry. This disaster may occupy all of the citizens in the USA. If we are attacked by outside forces, our first response may be to launch Neutron bombs, and ask questions later.
Assuming it’s not too late, if we have the will, we can revert quickly to a pre-industrial type society, and at the same time apply our technological prowess to environmental remediation, population reduction, and constructing habitats beyond the Earth. We really don’t have any choice in the matter, and we had better start now.This means downgrading the pursuit of ‘Clean Energy’, fuel-efficient automobiles, universal health-care, aid to the starving masses, and other trivia, and focus on what really matters.
Methane gas erupting in Siberia
