Global Warming

Scientists have made an alarming discovery in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. There are plumes of methane bubbling up through the shallow sea and this potent greenhouse gas is being injected directly into the atmosphere. In an area of just ten thousand square miles, one hundred "fountains of methane" have been discovered and some of them are over a kilometre across. Why should we worry? Methane is a much more powerful green house gas than carbon dioxide and over a hundred year period it is twenty times more powerful in its effect. There are literally hundreds of millions of tons of methane stored on the Eat Siberian Arctic Shelf bed alone. This is stored as methane hydrate under high pressure and low temperatures at the bottom of the sea. Global warming in the Arctic has been a lot stronger than the rest of the planet. The warming causes these hydrates to release their methane.

In the Arctic region in general there are billions of tons of methane hydrates stored on the sea bed. If, even a small proportion of this gas is injected into the atmosphere it could cause catastrophic warming by means of a positive feedback mechanism. More warming causes more melting of the methane hydrates which causes more warming yet again.

We have all been warned that excessive man made emissions of carbon dioxide are warming the planet to possibly dangerous levels. Some earth scientists such as James Lovelock believe that we have set in train irreversible consequences regarding the dangerous warming of the planet. Let us hope he is proved wrong. We need to do something to prevent the injection of billions of tons of methane into the atmosphere at all costs. A climate change agreement and treaty is badly needed.