Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt, Far-Reaching Climate Change
An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from ice sheets that extended to Earth’s low latitudes some 635 million years ago caused a dramatic shift in climate, scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.
The shift triggered events that resulted in global warming and an ending of the last “snowball” ice age.
The researchers believe that the methane was released gradually at first and then very quickly from clathrates–methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice sheets.
When the ice sheets became unstable, they collapsed, releasing pressure on the clathrates. The clathrates then began to de-gas.
“Our findings document an abrupt and catastrophic global warming that led from a very cold, seemingly stable climate state to a very warm, also stable, climate state–with no pause in between,” said geologist Martin Kennedy of the University of California at Riverside (UCR), who led the research team.
“What we now need to know is the sensitivity of the trigger,” he said. “How much forcing does it take to move from one stable state to the other–and are we approaching something like that today with current carbon dioxide warming?”
This transition “from ’snowball Earth’ into a warmer period shows the compelling need for research on abrupt climate change in Earth’s history,” said H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences. “These changes have much to tell us about the modern human-induced threat of rapid climate change.”
According to Kennedy and colleagues, methane clathrate destabilization acted as a runaway feedback to increased global warming, and was the tipping point that ended the last snowball Earth. (The snowball Earth hypothesis posits that the Earth was covered from pole to pole in a thick sheet of ice for millions of years at a time.)
“Once methane was released at low latitudes from destabilization in front of the ice sheets, warming caused other clathrates to destabilize,” Kennedy said. “Clathrates are held in a temperature-pressure balance of only a few degrees.”
Not all of Earth’s methane was released millions of years ago. Methane clathrates are present today in Arctic permafrost and beneath the oceans at continental margins; they will remain dormant, it’s thought, unless triggered by warming.
This trigger is a major concern, Kennedy said, because it’s possible that very little warming could unleash this trapped methane.
Uncovering the methane reservoir could potentially warm the Earth tens of degrees, he said, and the mechanism could be very rapid.
Such a fast uncovering of clathrates could have triggered a catastrophic climate and biogeochemical reorganization of the ocean and atmosphere around 635 million years ago, Kennedy believes.
The abruptness of the glacial termination, along with changes in ancient ocean chemistry and chemical deposits in the oceans, have been a challenge to climate scientists.
“The geologic deposits of this period are quite different from what we find in subsequent deglaciation,” Kennedy said. “They immediately precede the first appearance of animals on Earth, suggesting some kind of environmental link.”
Also called marsh gas, methane is a colorless, odorless gas. As a greenhouse gas, it is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
“Today we’re conducting a global-scale experiment with Earth’s climate system,” Kennedy said, “and witnessing an unprecedented rate of warming, all with little or no knowledge of what instabilities lurk in the climate system and how they can influence life on Earth.
“Much the same experiment was done 635 million years ago, and the outcome is preserved in the geologic record. We see that strong forcing on the climate, not unlike the current carbon dioxide forcing, results in the activation of latent controls in the climate system that, once initiated, change climate to a completely different state.”
Kennedy and colleagues collected hundreds of marine sediment samples in South Australia for stable isotope analysis, an important tool used in climate reconstruction.
The scientists found the broadest range of oxygen isotopic variation ever reported from marine sediments, which they attribute to melting waters in ice sheets as well as destabilization of clathrates by glacial meltwater.
Kennedy was joined in the study by David Mrofka of UCR and Chris von der Borch of Flinders University, Australia.
The study also was supported by grants from NASA’s Exobiology Program.
Parade For The Future
| June 15, 2008 | ||
| 4:00 pm | to | 5:30 pm |
Parade for the Future
Sun, June 15th, 4:00-5:30 PM
Meet outside Park Street Station under the giant blue wave
Come on, come all to a Parade for the Future! Let’s celebrate what hasn’t happened yet, notably the impending submergence of our city under water due to climate change.
On Sunday, June 15th, Platform2 will lead a Parade for the Future in the form of a giant blue wave. We will gather outside the Park Street T station at 4PM. From there, the parade will proceed along the flood line of the neighborhood, tracing a worst-case scenario future geography from the year 2108. We will all be wearing blue and carrying a giant wave.
There will be scuba divers and sharks and seaweed. There will be music and swimming!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Wear blue. Trick out your bike. Bring your kids. Bring your pets. Wear a costume (mournful, maudlin or magnificent). Just show up.
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS: Bring your literature to hand out to people along the route.
See you in the future,
Ikatun and Platform2
Parade For The Future
Parade for the Future
Sun, June 15th, 4:00-5:30 PM
Meet outside Park Street Station under the giant blue wave
Come on, come all to a Parade for the Future! Let’s celebrate what hasn’t happened yet, notably the impending submergence of our city under water due to climate change.
On Sunday, June 15th, Platform2 will lead a Parade for the Future in the form of a giant blue wave. We will gather outside the Park Street T station at 4PM. From there, the parade will proceed along the flood line of the neighborhood, tracing a worst-case scenario future geography from the year 2108. We will all be wearing blue and carrying a giant wave.
There will be scuba divers and sharks and seaweed. There will be music and swimming!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Wear blue. Trick out your bike. Bring your kids. Bring your pets. Wear a costume (mournful, maudlin or magnificent). Just show up.
FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS: Bring your literature to hand out to people along the route.
See you in the future,
Ikatun and Platform2
Global Warming And The Colorado River
| June 6, 2008 | ||
| 10:00 am |
Scientific research indicates that warmer temperatures may create substantial water supply shortages in the Colorado River. This would greatly impact the more than 25 million people who rely on this source for water and power. Science-based tools and information are needed to adapt to changing climate conditions in this region of growing population and limited water resources. Come learn how the USGS and its partners are working to provide and apply the science needed by resource managers and policy makers to anticipate and address climate change impacts on the Colorado River.
What:
The USGS will host a congressional briefing on how science can be used to anticipate and address the impacts of climate change on the Colorado River.
Who:
Terrance J. Fulp, Bureau of Reclamation
Eric Kuhn, Colorado River Water Conservation District
Gregory J. McCabe, USGS
Where:
1324 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C.
When:
Friday, June 6, 2008
10:00 a.m.
Sponsors:
Representative Earl Blumenauer
Representative Wayne Gilchrest
Representative Jim Moran
Representative Jon Porter
Host:
Western States Water Council
Climate Change Science Program
Expensive Oil Means Expensive Lives
A very smart man once told me that Oil (I capitalize it on purpose) is as important to modern society as the Buffalo was to the plains Indians. Like the Indians almost every single aspect of our lives involves oil, we use it to move, we make our homes out of it, we make everything we wear/touch/use out of it, it keeps us warm, it cools us down, it keeps our lights on, we even eat it (most crops are grown using a significant amount of oil). It is arguably THE most important part of our lives. The plains Indians treated the Buffalo like a friend, they have religious ceremonies to honor it, they thanked the gods for every one they killed, it was a revered and honored part of their lives. We on the other hand only think about oil when the price at the pump goes up.
Something so vital to the way we live and we hardly ever think about it. The one substance on this planet that we simply can not live without (at least for now), and we only pay it a second thought when we have to pay more for gas. Well it’s time for all that to end.
Oil is a necessary part of our lives, it’s an inescapable truth. Nothing else has the energy density that oil does, no other substance allows for the creation of of power so easily. And what do we do with it? We waste it in big inefficient SUV’s. We let it spill out onto our beaches, we make billions of plastic do-dads out of it and then throw them away after one use. It’s about time we start prioritizing our use.
Then:
We are long past the point of “easy” choices. We now much decide, do we continue to waste oil on water bottles, and one time use razors, and packaging that gets tossed after one use. Or are we going to save the last supplies of oil on this planet for things like medical breakthroughs, water filtration devices, emergency shelters, etc. Well we might not get that choice the market might make it for us.
The Dow Chemical Company announced today that on June 1 it will raise the price of all of its products by up to 20 percent – depending on their exposure to rising energy, feedstock and transportation costs – and will review all terms to all customers. 20%!
Andrew N. Liveris, Dow chairman and CEO, said the sweeping price increases and reviews are essential as the Company attempts to mitigate the extraordinary rise in energy and related raw material costs.
Now:
“Our first quarter feedstock and energy bill leapt a staggering 42 percent year over year, and that trajectory has continued, with the cost of oil and natural gas climbing ever higher,” Liveris said. “The new level of hydrocarbons and energy costs is putting a strain on the entire value chain and is forcing difficult discussions with customers about resetting the value proposition for our products.”
Dow spent $8 billion on energy and hydrocarbon-based feedstock costs in 2002. At the current rate, those costs would climb to $32 billion this year.
“In addition to these price increases,” Liveris said, “the Company is continuing its aggressive cost-control plan internally and is accelerating its existing top-down competitiveness review for all of its businesses and manufacturing facilities in the light of these new feedstock and energy prices.”
This is one company that makes products used in almost every other company in the world. If Dow raises prices 20% so does everyone else that uses their products. Dow is not the only one, all you have to do is walk (too expensive to fill up the car) to the grocery store and you will see the cost of Milk has rocketed, the cost of food is on the rise and the cost of everything else made far away is also going up.
Weather you like it or not, oil is no longer going to be providing the free ride it has for the last couple hundred years. We are going to have to start getting real stingy about how we use it, how we burn it, and how we move it around. When the white man came and decimated the Buffalo, the plains Indians way of life fell apart. Are we headed for a similar fate?
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