Study says methane a new climate threat (Permafrost Alert! The latest twist in Global Warming?)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/6/06 | Seth Borenstein - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Global warming gases trapped in the soil are bubbling out of the thawing permafrost in amounts far higher than previously thought and may trigger what researchers warn is a climate time bomb.

Methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — is being released from the permafrost at a rate five times faster than thought, according to a study being published Thursday in the journal Nature. The findings are based on new, more accurate measuring techniques.

"The effects can be huge," said lead author Katey Walter of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks said. "It's coming out a lot and there's a lot more to come out."

Scientists worry about a global warming vicious cycle that was not part of their already gloomy climate forecast: Warming already under way thaws permafrost, soil that has been continuously frozen for thousands of years. Thawed permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide. Those gases reach the atmosphere and help trap heat on Earth in the greenhouse effect. The trapped heat thaws more permafrost and so on.

"The higher the temperature gets, the more permafrost we melt, the more tendency it is to become a more vicious cycle," said Chris Field, director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not part of the study. "That's the thing that is scary about this whole thing. There are lots of mechanisms that tend to be self-perpetuating and relatively few that tend to shut it off."

Some scientists say this vicious cycle is already under way, but others disagree.

Most of the methane-releasing permafrost is in Siberia. Another study earlier this summer in the journal Science found that the amount of carbon trapped in this type of permafrost — called yedoma — is much more prevalent than originally thought and may be 100 times the amount of carbon released into the air each year by the burning of fossil fuels.

It won't all come out at once or even over several decades, but if temperatures increase, then the methane and carbon dioxide will escape the soil, scientists say.

The permafrost issue has caused a quiet buzz of concern among climate scientists and geologists. Specialists in Arctic climate are coming up with research plans to study the permafrost effect, which is not well understood or observed, said Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a study group of 300 scientists.

"It's kind of like a slow-motion time bomb," said Ted Schuur, a professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of Florida and co-author of the study in Science.

Most of the yedoma is in little-studied areas of northern and eastern Siberia. What makes that permafrost special is that much of it lies under lakes; the carbon below gets released as methane. Carbon beneath dry permafrost is released as carbon dioxide.

Using special underwater bubble traps, Walter and her colleagues found giant hot spots of bubbling methane that were never measured before because they were hard to reach.

"I don't think it can be easily stopped; we'd really have to have major cooling for it to stop," Walter said.

Scientists aren't quite sure whether methane or carbon dioxide is worse. Methane is far more powerful in trapping heat, but only lasts about a decade before it dissipates into carbon dioxide and other chemicals. Carbon dioxide traps heat for about a century.

"The bottom line is it's better if it stays frozen in the ground," Schuur said. "But we're getting to the point where it's going more and more into the atmosphere."

Vladimir Romanovsky, geophysics professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, said he thinks the big methane or carbon dioxide release hasn't started yet, but it's coming. In Alaska and Canada — which have far less permafrost than Siberia — it's closer to happening, he said. Already, the Alaskan permafrost is reaching the thawing point in many areas.

[NormsRevenge]

On the Net:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

[NormsRevenge]

We're Doomed!!!

Just a few weeks ago..

Undersea gas (Methane) could speed global warming - study

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669835/posts

[oncebitten]

We are so frikkin doomed, I think I just wet my pants.

[saganite]

Quick. Kill all the cows. We've got to compensate somehow!

[NormsRevenge]

This photo provided by the journal Nature shows Sergey Zimov, director of the Northeast Science Station in Siberia, examining a cross-section of yedoma, carbon trapped in permafrost, along the bank of the Kolyma River in Siberia. The shiney surface of the cliff represents massive ice wedges. The dark sections in between are soil inclusions which contain ice-age organic carbon, left over from the Pleistocene steppe-tundra ecosystem, which, when deposited into lake bottoms, provided food for bacteria, that produce methane. (AP Photo/Nature, Katey Walter)

[NormsRevenge]

Kill all the cows!
I was getting to that in a minute, Darn! ;-P

[JennysCool]

Lately, I'm finding the desperation to grow the global warming industry hysterically funny. Overblown articles like this are classic examples of "climate change" hype.

[MPJackal]

Relax. It was just me. Too much Taco Bell.

[kinoxi]

Scientists aren't quite sure whether methane or carbon dioxide is worse.

[NormsRevenge]

I hear ya.

Liberalism, Nanny Statism, Climate Change.. all religions in and of themselves,, collectively.. It's a real quagmire.. ;-)

[Uncle Miltie]

More reasons to keep Mexican food south of the border....

(Just Kidding!!!! It's a Joke!!!)

[Red Badger]

Methane from the premafrost melt, methane from the ocean bottoms thawing, methane from the zillions of ruminant animals, methane from oil wells, methane from volcanoes........Obviously, it's ALL Bush's fault............

[sanchmo]

So planet earth is permanently incapable of recovering from a 1° increase in average temperatures? It's a wonder we made it this far, dontcha think?

[norton]

Don't I remember Ronald Reagan being severely criticized for stating the methane was the culprit?

[NormsRevenge]

It's OK, one of the lead pics at Yahoo re: Global warming and an alternative fuel source, that discounts the recent report of more oil reserves found in the Gulf of Mexico.. the caption speaks for itself.

We are witnessing nothing more than a movement attempting to transfer wealth from one group of folks to another, imo.

An attendee inspects a fuel cell hybrid Audi at the National Hydrogen Association's (NHA) annual convention in Long Beach, California, March 13, 2006. Enzymes rather than scarce and expensive platinum may hold the answer to the hydrogen fuel cells of the future to halt global warming and as the oil runs out, a scientist said on Wednesday. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

[Red Badger]

But you can't cook the meat, cause that would increase globull warming.........

[texas_mrs]

Good thing we killed of them buffaloes in the 1800's....