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Climate Change; Cambio Climático
March 5th 2009: Nature: A sleeping giant?, by Amanda Leigh Mascarelli
As the planet warms, vast stores of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — could be released from frozen deposits on land and under the ocean. Amanda Leigh Mascarelli reports on the race to understand a ticking time bomb.
CE Comments: in fact huge energy supply resources that rival fuel fossils but…….
“…..The United States is believed to hold some 5,700 trillion cubic meters of gas hydrates — that’s nearly 9,000 times the country’s current annual natural gas consumption, making the resources potentially highly lucrative. But for their part, some climate researchers hope that methane clathrates will stay right where they are for a very long time. “It sounds to me technologically very difficult if not dangerous,” says James White. “This is a sleeping giant that should be left asleep.”
Tags: world warming, planet warming, methane, amanda leigh mascarelli, greenhouse effect, time bomb, james white, clathrates, gas reserves, oil reserves, fossil fuels, gas hydrates,
Source: Nature, 5th March 2009. The average atmospheric concentration of methane shot up suddenly in 2007, having remained stable for a decade. Data shown are from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, courtesy of Matt Rigby.
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