Mysterious Siberian crater attributed to methane

http://www.nature.com/news/mysterious-siberian-crater-attributed-to-methane-1.15649

by Happer • 12 years ago

30 14 12 years ago

dang• 12 years ago

Url changed from http://www.iflscience.com/environment/scientists-think-they-..., which points to this.

Nothing to see here folks. Let's just keep on with the status quo, I'm sure we can build some epic structures to keep the ocean at bay and protect our coastal cities, keep supply chains moving, etc.

Right?

not_that_noob• 12 years ago

Methane from thawing permafrost can act as an accelerant to global warming, and some models predict an exponential acceleration if this happens. This is not good news at all.

See http://motherboard.vice.com/read/if-we-release-a-small-fract...

CalRobert5• 12 years ago

I don't see how civilization as it is currently organized on this planet can exist if climate change accelerates due to positive feedback. It seems geoengineering, or rather ghoulishly, a massive die off of humans, are the only possibilities for preventing this. Antibiotic resistance may provide the latter, but I can hardly countenance it. We really need another planet.

crpatino3• 12 years ago

And how would that exactly benefit the 6+ billion people in the receiving end of that cringing events?

Even assuming that a suitable planet is found in a time frame that matters, and the required space travel technology is developed in a time frame that matters... how many thousands of people would we be able to send in the Colonizing ships?

That might save Humanity-the-species... Humanity-the-Actual-population would remain just as screwed anyways...

CalRobert5• 12 years ago

Oh it wouldn't - and I think it's 7+ now too. The vast majority would be doomed.

jfoster• 12 years ago

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "civilization as it is currently organized?"

I'm far from being literate in climate science, but my understanding is that climate change wouldn't completely change civilization. I understand climate change as a shift in the parts of the earth that are inhabitable due to rising sea levels, wilder weather events, etc.

Another planet mightn't help with antibiotic resistance. We'll be taking the same bacteria with us wherever we go.

CalRobert5• 12 years ago

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that we currently rely on an abundance of cheap food, cheap transportation, and easy access to clean water in order to keep a higher percentage of the human species than ever before living comfortably. When these things become scarce (as former croplands fail and supplies of fresh water harder to find) the mass migration which results seems likely to create millions if not billions of refugees. This would be a major disruption to civilization in my view. Somewhat unjustly it seems many people in equatorial regions will bear the brunt of the impact of climate change - these are generally people who have contributed less to its root causes.

The reference to antibiotic resistance was dark humour of a sort, but clearly poorly executed. I was simply noting that if all the people are dead then we will emit far less CO2.

jonah• 12 years ago

Wouldn't it be more likely that we can figure out how to stop/reverse what's happening to this planet than organize and advance enough to leave for another. (Which we'd just go about ruining as soon as we got there.)

CalRobert5• 12 years ago

I agree, but we could use a backup planet anyway.

idlewords• 12 years ago

The concentration of methane cited is above the lower explosive limit of methane in air (4.4%). Let's hope no one throws a match down this crater without filming it.

Mysterious Siberian crater attributed to methane

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