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This is the critical ticking time bomb that could dramatically change all the living circumstances on the planet. Some leading scientists believe that just releasing 10% of the frozen methane could cause a temperature rise of 3 to 6 degrees Celsius that would pretty much be the end of things for some time.
Perhaps the best current measure of the situation is summed up by a "Tweet " from one top Norwegian scientist who was recently monitoring the frozen Antarctic methane - '"we are f@#$%D"
True story and his tweet even went viral for a bit. Needless to say, the politicians funding the expedition were not so impressed by the alarmist conclusion..
While others argue there just are not enough alarms conveying the gravity of this ticking bomb. Who decides,. before it is too late?
Methane Outbreak Nears
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as world governments ignores the risks of an ice-free Arctic (Wadhams). Rather, an ice-free Arctic is widely applauded by much of the world as a positive way forward for re-opening of northern shipping routes, new trips for cruise lines, and access to a huge cache of fossil fuels.
According to Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, an ice-free Arctic with its concomitant methane outbreak potential is scarcely mentioned by the IPCC in its assessment. Evidently, the IPCC does not want to discuss the possibility of major catastrophes.
In truth, an ice-free Arctic tempestuously opens up eons of methane entrapped ever since the last Ice Age. The ramifications are profound.
When the Vatican recently held meetings with leading scientists about climate change in preparation for the Pope’s encyclical of June 2015, one of the invited guest speakers was Professor Peter Wadhams. Assuming that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences listened carefully to his words, they may still be suffering from bouts of sleeplessness.
Status of Arctic Sea Ice & Why it Matters
“The Fulcrum announcement is a big deal precisely because of the need for low carbon solutions for aviation, other companies have made fats and vegetable oils into aviation fuels, but what is important about the Fulcrum technology is the ability to make fuel from wastes like ordinary garbage rather than food resources,” said Jeremy Martin of Union of Concerned Scientists in a statement given to ThinkProgress.
But the traditional US response to homelessness is to treat it as an emergency situation that needs a band-aid fix, putting people in temporary shelter until permanent housing turns up. This system is significantly flawed and bureaucracy-clogged. Some people can’t get matched for housing because they lack proper identification. Much of the front-line work is done by nonprofits, which by necessity devote at least some staff to the search for public and private funding for their work rather than to housing efforts. People sometimes waited years to get housed – and by the time a home becomes available, oftentimes members of this fluid population have moved on
“Controlling for income, age and education, we found a significant independent effect of trees on the street on health,” said Marc Berman, a co-author of the study and also a psychologist at the University of Chicago. “It seemed like the effect was strongest for the public [trees]. Not to say the other trees don’t have an impact, but we found stronger effects for the trees on the street.”
Surprise, surprise: the majority of Russians would prefer the West’s hostility of Brezhnev days to their warm embraces in the days of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
Da’ish is paying an average of $300 a month, promising two days off each week to visit one’s family, cash bonuses for marriage and one-time child subsidies of $400 per child. Whereas UNWRA has just reduced monthly cash for food stipends to $30 per month. One can imagine what some of the camp residents are thinking: which horse is the best bet for an improved life?
Professor Wadhams, the East Siberian Sea is a lurking monster. The effect of a methane outbreak could be as catastrophic as an asteroid collision. The amount of warming would be immediate and large. The probability is about 50%. The ramifications are profound.
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