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Methane Burps: Ticking Time Bomb

There are enormous quantities of naturally occurring greenhouse gasses trapped in ice-like structures in the cold northern muds and at the bottom of the seas. These ices, called clathrates, contain 3,000 times as much methane as is in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

Now here's the scary part. A temperature increase of merely a few degrees would cause these gases to volatilize and "burp" into the atmosphere, which would further raise temperatures, which would release yet more methane, heating the Earth and seas further, and so on.

There's 400 gigatons of methane locked in the frozen arctic tundra - enough to start this chain reaction - and the kind of warming the Arctic Council predicts is sufficient to melt the clathrates and release these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Once triggered, this cycle could result in runaway global warming the likes of which even the most pessimistic doomsayers aren't talking about.

An apocalyptic fantasy concocted by hysterical environmentalists? Unfortunately, no. Strong geologic evidence suggests something similar has happened at least twice before.

The most recent of these catastrophes occurred about 55 million years ago in what geologists call the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), when methane burps caused rapid warming and massive die-offs, disrupting the climate for more than 100,000 years.

The granddaddy of these catastrophes occurred 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, when a series of methane burps came close to wiping out all life on Earth.

Where exactley is there enough ice to hold 880000000 lbs of methane?

Everyone knows that the earth goes through warming and cooling spells. This just happens to be a warming one)

Hmm Sylence...I read that the Chinese have concluded that There won't be enough remaining Oil for Global Warming. I forget the source, I won't say your wrong Because I can't proove it yet without A source/information/evidence, Your argument is good though. I shall check this out on google sometime today. If you have any sources, Post them if you will.

We are in the warming period of an ongoing ice age. It's gonna get cold again... real cold.

I like the idea of The Day after Tomorrow better.

Here is the source of what I was reading.

http://www.energybulletin.net/3647.html

I don't know... if you read the whole thing through... I don't know.... It might be true or just something to make fun of bush with read the bottom of the post... really... I'm stumped...

yeah, the whole cold/warm cycle is normal. the earth starts to warm up, causing in-balances, then, the inbalances triggers an ice age to equalize the diffrences. because the earth is just simply trying to equalize itself because of the unequal heating.

That was actually an exagurated version of what scientists in 2002 thought would happen in the next 100 years.

I read an article about the impacts that global warming has already done, and many animals are going extint. It predicted that at least 50% of all animals and plants will go extinct in the next massive extinction.

In a related matter, skin cancer has increased about 150% in the past 10 years.

Just a joke:

It's discovered that, if it weren't for global warning, there would still be a huge glacier covering most of the blue states. Naturally, the Republicans have now become aware of Global Warming, and are working very hard to find ways to reverse the effect.

Sorry to be liberal but Were all gonna die anyway >.< its unavoidable lets see...

>>Metor the size of mars gonna hit us in 2017<<
>>Global Warming<<
>>Bush ( He already killed my Cousin)<<
>>And Nuclear weapons <<

So please pick your choice of death...

Species go extinct every second of the day. We just don't notice it because we only care about the heavily populated ones.

The reason skin cancer is going up is beause everyone follows the trends of society. "Let's go burn ourselves to a crisp, get better, then do it again!"



Meteor... Doubtful. Global Warming... Never... Bush.... Bush... Bush............. Yeah. He is going to kill us all. Nuclear weapons...... Doubtful.... But possible.

>>Metor the size of mars gonna hit us in 2017<<
>>Global Warming<<
>>Bush ( He already killed my Cousin)<<
>>And Nuclear weapons <<

1- sicentists are coming up with ways to avoid one now.
2- we'll find a way to fix it, or get off the planet
3- will get assasenated
4- possible, just dont piss people from other counrties off. jus let em be, they let us be, we're all a happy family.

Or will choke to death on a hotdog, steak, or another pretzel.

Secret Service Agent: "The Heimlich?! The academy didn't think they'd need to teach us that to protect the President!"

WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THE METEOR IN 2017!!!!???? IT ISN"T TRUE!!! GEEZ!!! WHY ARE THE PLANNING FOR 2020 then?! don't be so pessimistic and you said the same thing twice.... that is not most likely gonna be the END of all problems!!! geez... this is serious DISCUSSION we are supposed to discuss it NOT say, "owell forget it... a meteor in 2017 gonna come and BLAM! so just forget all your worries and don nothing else for the next dozen years...." ....

edit: -_-

You should read a post of regulations or something.... they can delete without notice... ask yoshi he'll tell you...

ADDITION:


most interesting.... you edited my quote when I answered your question....

Where did ya get this "meteor will hit the earth in 2017"? I'm sure it would be a good read. I think the human race will always survive, maybe not on this planet, but somewhere, somehow, humans will find a way. We always have.

>>there are no meteors the size of mars<<
>>there isn't going to be unatural global warming<<
>>bush didn't kill your cousin<<
>>nuclear weapons are the only thing up there that have a chance of killing everyone<<

Every one of the statements are opinions rather than facts.

the first and third are facts. if a meteor was the size of mars it would be a planet, not a meteor.

no....to be a plant you need an active core of the object spinning have a gravitanional field and an atmosphere

meteors have none of the above

>>just because meteors are usually small doesn't mean it's physically impossible to get one big enough to wipe out life on Earth
>>humans can do great--terrible, but great--things
>>obviously Bush didn't pull the trigger, but metaphors are still valid figures of speech
>>of course you knew this was an opinion too