New study finds that weakening undersea Artic permafrost is allow substantial amounts of methane to seep into the atmosphere. Read about it here. This could possibly make global warming a much more serious problem, as methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas. So what I am about to say has nothing at all to do with denialism.
Why is the permafrost (undersea) melting?
… the process occurs naturally over thousands of years but is being accelerated by man-made climate warming. “Sustained release of methane to the atmosphere from thawing Arctic permafrost is a likely positive feedback to climate warming,” the authors write in the study, which appears in the new edition of the journal Science.
I need to read the article. But this means that the methane released exacerbates warming, it does not read as the warming atmosphere causing undersea permafrost to melt (who knew that the stuff below water could be frozen?) The term “positive feedback” is supposed to indicate such a relationship – but if it is the case, then why is the article not clear about it?
OK, my real point. Read the last paragraph of the article:
“We’re at the very beginning of studying this topic,” Shakhova says. “This has never been incorporated into climate models.”
What? Something that is so obviously important, and could so obviously (?) swamp the impact of CO2 emissions on warming, and this was never incorporated into climate models? Ahh, the frailty of human knowledge. And here we go bounding into the future as if we have a clue what causes warming. What else hasn’t ever been put into the climate models?
Duly noted, Wintercow.
I’ve never been one to deny geophysical events, and this bears watching. While I doubt whatever happens will devour me or Linda, or for that matter Mr. &Mrs. Wintercow, I hope it will not engulf our children. My sense is that the earth and the sun have such overwhelming influence it dwarfs what we do as humans, driving our cars and heating our houses. But who knows?
Ahh, the frailty of human knowledge, so well-put. Every time my better instincts take over, I pray for humility.