blizzard1024

So what do you propose we do? Cut down CO2 emissions and throw the world's economy back to the stone age? There are 7 billion of us on the planet and most are extremely poor and destitute. They need energy and many third world countries have coal, natural gas and oil but are being forced to use clean energy alternatives that are not efficient. Hundreds of millions or more are living shortened life spans because they use charcoal for heating and cooking. They abuse their local environment by cutting down all their trees for charcoal and their average life span because of the smoke in their homes is in the 40s!! We have got to let these third world nations develop a power grids. "Green" energy just is not efficient enough at this time. Pure and simple. So basically we should continue to emit to keep the world's economy from imploding (God knows we are close to this anyway) and let science work on making more efficient carbon neutral energy sources...solar panels....geothermal....waves...and maybe wind. I hate wind energy because it destroys the beautiful mountain tops where I live and is a bird and bat shredder. I see wind as a mean form of green. We will have to learn to adapt to the changes in climate...however severe. But climate change seem to be slow right now...what? around .2C/decade. I think this is the lesser of two evils. World anarchy or a warmer climate? Winners and losers, that is what it will be. If you look at history...there are always winners and losers as centuries go by for whatever reason. So this climate change issue will introduce another factor that mankind will somehow adapt to. But please don't wipe out the world's economies!!!! It's bad enough already....

So you are saying that this ESAS source of methane is going to spiral out of control and forever change our climate. I am sorry.... prior to the Holocene, there were very rapid fluctuations both warming and cooling of our climate and somehow melting/freezing permafrost and CH4 releases/uptakes did not spiral the planet's climate out of control. We are talking trace gases here...ppm and ppb for CH4! I believe the Earth is warming due to GHG (don't say I am an Anthony Watts worshiper)...but 3C warming I don't believe over a 100-200 years will be that bad. I think the climate models are warming us up too quickly and there is a lot of warming in the pipeline as Hansen has said. But we will adapt. It is even possible that the water vapor feedback is overstated and we see only 1-2C additional warming. Generally warmer climates are good for mankind. If it was the other way around...then people would be scared. I am of the camp that the oceans provide a huge dampening effect on the climate. So forcings led to slow responses. Very slow. That I believe is fundamentally how life survived all the chaos that volcanoes, asteroids etc have wrecked on the planet in the past. Releases of methane from a source in the Arctic somehow is going to wreck the Earth's climate...COME ON MAN!

I have to agree that this is BS scare mongering. 8000 years ago during the Holocene climatic optimum the Arctic was 2-4C warmer than today. There is postulated to have been a complete melt of the Arctic sea ice in summer and the climate rapidly warmed. Why was there not a huge release of methane that spun the climate out of control with that warm period? The climate is a self regulating machine with a lot of feedbacks and "states". Yes is could warm...but it would stabilize at a new equilibrium level. Otherwise, anytime it warms, or cools for that matter, the climate would spin out of control. We are here now and life abounds on earth BECAUSE our climate stabilizes. This article and "research" is pure stupidity. Shameful.