Up to $60 trillion (just shy of the global GDP for one year) is what climate change impacts will cost the world’s economy if the estimated 50 billion tons of seafloor-trapped methane gas in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf were to be released into the atmosphere. That’s according to new economic modeling research conducted by […]
My August 2011 Science news roundup: An underground river flowing two miles beneath the Amazon River has been detected; ancient microbes may have been found in 3.46 billion year old Australian sandstone bed (also: a fossil of the earliest mammalian ancestor has been found in China) ; a dinosaur era mass extinction of marine life has been attributed to a massive methane gas release.
It is the fundamental structural element of all living things. It is a key component of many energy sources, and, it is a crucial player in our planet’s climate system. The natural cycling of this element — Carbon (C) — between earth, atmosphere and ocean maintains the habitable conditions that all Life depends upon. Much
In Search of Missing Carbon & Life – 'Deep Earth' Mission Planned Read More 👉
Reporting her results from a fifth Gulf of Mexico expedition ending this past December, University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha Joye has been to the bottom and back, and her findings are anything but optimistic. Her team has found numerous expanses of oil and soot covered sea floor that were “chemically finger-printed” as deriving from
Newest Gulf Report: Oil, Soot and Dead Animals on Sea Floor Read More 👉
Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, and is the result of natural decomposition processes. Although its lifetime in the atmosphere as a free gas is much shorter than CO2, it is 23 times more potent in terms of its heat trapping ability. This past month, there has been a flurry of news,
Methane: The 'Sleeper' Agent of Climate Change Read More 👉
A research team confirms “extensive out-gassing of methane to the atmosphere” over the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf, and confirm its source to be venting from sea-bed sediments. Though acknowledging their findings do not seriously alter climate change predictions, the team also asserts that the sub-sea permafrost layer is failing and advise more urgent investigation.
Extensive Release of Methane Gas from Arctic Shelf Confirmed Read More 👉