Engineer Padgett Peterson, a graduate
of the General Motors Institute, a former
amateur auto racer and a computer designer for Martin Marietta Orlando Aerospace, even sees a potential
danger from the abrupt lane changes made possible by the technology.
I have posted on RealClimate about 4 times in the past 5 years regarding the potential thaw
of the methal hydrate deposits at the bottom
of the oceans.I stated in my posts on your website that I believe firmly that those deposits are in quite a good bit
of danger of melting from climate change feedback mechanisms.On Nov 8th, ScienceDaily posted a huge new study on the PETM boundary 55 million years ago, and some key data on how the methane at that point may very well have melted and contributed to the massive climate shift.I am an
amateur who reads in the new a lot about climate change.I'd now like to say «I told you so!!!»
RealClimate is wonderful, and an excellent source
of reliable information.As I've said before, methane is an extremely dangerous component to global warming.Comment # 20 is correct.There is a sharp melting point to frozen methane.A huge increase in the release
of methane could happen within the next 50 years.At what point in the Earth's temperature rise and the rise
of co2 would a huge methane melt occur?No one has answered that definitive issue.If I ask you all at what point would huge amounts
of extra methane start melting, i.e at what temperature rise
of the ocean near the Artic methane ice deposits would the methane melt, or at what point in the rise
of co2 concentrations in the atmosphere would the methane melt, I believe that no one could currently tell me the actual answer as to where the sharp melting point exists.
Of course, once that tipping point has been reached, and billions
of tons
of methane outgass from what had been locked stores
of methane, locked away for an eternity, it is exactly the same as the burning
of stored fossil fuels which have been stored for an eternity as well.And even though methane does not have as long a life as co2, while it is around in the air it can cause other tipping points, i.e. permafrost melting, to arrive much sooner.I will reiterate what I've said before on this and other sites.Methane is a hugely underreported, underestimated risk.How about RealClimate attempts to model exactly what would happen to other tipping points, such as the melting permafrost, if indeed a huge increase in the melting
of the methal hydrate ice WERE to occur within the next 50 years.My
amateur guess is that the huge, albeit temporary, increase in methane over even three or four decades might push other relevent tipping points to arrive much, much, sooner than they normally would, thereby vastly incresing negative feedback mechanisms.We KNOW that quick, huge, changes occured in the Earth's climate in the past.See other relevent posts in the past from Realclimate.Climate often does not change slowly, but undergoes huge, quick, changes periodically, due to negative feedbacks accumulating, and tipping the climate to a quick change.Why should the
danger from huge potential methane releases be vievwed with any less trepidation?