Oh shit - methane!

[Rum]

The sea is leaking methane! We are doomed...this from the BBC at:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8205864.stm

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The sea is leaking methane! We are doomed...this from the BBC at:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8205864.stm

Not to worry, it will make the atmosphere explosive and burn off quite rapidly.

Well, no worry if you're a 50-meter, mutant, fire-breathing lizard-thingy.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Yep, well done guys, we fucked this planet up good-and-proper! I feel sorry for the poor saps who have to live on it now!



Oh, wait...




...SHIT!

[cowiz]

Pfft, there's more danger from the methane under my quilt.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Yep, well done guys, we fucked this planet up good-and-proper! I feel sorry for the poor saps who have to live on it now!



Oh, wait...




...SHIT!

Actually, more like farts.

[Rum]

Pfft, there's more danger from the methane under my quilt.

No - please - not the Dutch oven thing again..

[Horwood Beer-Master]

[Guy_Montag]

The sea is leaking methane! We are doomed...this from the BBC at:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8205864.stm

Hey!! I was on that cruise!

In the discussions I listened in on, I think the important bit was: Not enough long term data

We don't know how long this has been going on for, & we don't know what the rate of change is.

Though since I only provided equipment, the clever people may have found some way of working out how things have changed. They are quite clever.

[Rum]

Though since I only provided equipment, the clever people may have found some way of working out how things have changed. They are quite clever.

Quite clever people have quite a lost to answer for if you ask me..

[Mysturji]

The solution is at hand...

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[ScholasticSpastic]

In our oxidizing atmoshpere, methane is gradually converted to CO2- even without the direct intervention of living systems. Methane, itself, is thus probably an overestimated problem. However, since we're presently producing CO2 faster than biological and abiotic systems can sequester it as organic molecules or carbonate salts, the added contribution to CO2 from oceanic seapage could still be a problem. I have always been concerned about ocean acidification more than climate change from CO2- especially as there is more photosynthesis taking place at sea than on land and the acidification of our oceans could interfere with phytoplankton populations reliant upon pH to secrete carbonate skeletons.

Ocean acidification could increase the effects of our carbon dioxide pollution while simultaneously reducing the ocean's ability to persist as a primary food resource for much of the Earth's population. So, regardless of the "controversy" surrounding climate change, we're still fucked if we keep on producing carbon dioxide at a rate which exceeds natural sequestration. Unfortunately, ocean acidification, as it's a less direct though more thorough mechanism for fucking ourselves, is less able to capture public imagination as readily as the direct effects attributed to greenhouse gases. So we're left peddling a more "controversial" issue while ignoring a much greater threat.

[Rum]

In our oxidizing atmoshpere, methane is gradually converted to CO2- even without the direct intervention of living systems. Methane, itself, is thus probably an overestimated problem. However, since we're presently producing CO2 faster than biological and abiotic systems can sequester it as organic molecules or carbonate salts, the added contribution to CO2 from oceanic seapage could still be a problem. I have always been concerned about ocean acidification more than climate change from CO2- especially as there is more photosynthesis taking place at sea than on land and the acidification of our oceans could interfere with phytoplankton populations reliant upon pH to secrete carbonate skeletons.

Ocean acidification could increase the effects of our carbon dioxide pollution while simultaneously reducing the ocean's ability to persist as a primary food resource for much of the Earth's population. So, regardless of the "controversy" surrounding climate change, we're still fucked if we keep on producing carbon dioxide at a rate which exceeds natural sequestration. Unfortunately, ocean acidification, as it's a less direct though more thorough mechanism for fucking ourselves, is less able to capture public imagination as readily as the direct effects attributed to greenhouse gases. So we're left peddling a more "controversial" issue while ignoring a much greater threat.

Jesus Christ (as it were). Someone who knows what they are talking about..and can scare me even more than I already am. (see also The Elephant in the Room)

[ScholasticSpastic]

Jesus Christ (as it were). Someone who knows what they are talking about..and can scare me even more than I already am. (see also The Elephant in the Room)

Yeah, I used to want to be a marine biologist. Then I decided to focus on systems which were more likely to persist through my career after graduating.