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Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

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Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#171

Post by finid »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #55
shostack wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In layman's terms, how much are we screwed without hope of a solution, and what is the rough timeframe before the evening news starts looking like "The Day After Tomorrow?"

I'm wondering the same thing. Should I start blowing through my 401k money now or what?

It doesn't make sense to blow the money by yourself. Send me some.

And while you're at it, you might want to cancel any insurance that you have. Afterall, what's the point? That will make more money available to blow.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#172

Post by finid »

makmanalp wrote: post #112
bithive123 wrote: post #49

Here is a good video about the arctic methane emergency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9ed5E54s4 Some summary points: - Total amount of methane in the current atmosphere: ~5 gigatons - Amount of carbon preserved as methane in the arctic shelf: estimated at 100s-1000s of gigatons - Only 1% release would double the atmospheric burden of methane - Not much effort is needed to destabilize this 1% - The volume current…

I wonder how many of these bubbles are harvestable into useful fuel? Prevent a crisis and stockpile fuel at the same time? Obviously it's nicer if we could get everyone to sign the Kyoto treaty but ...

Where're you going to store that much gas?

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#174

Post by louthy »

mattmanser wrote: post #166
whyenot wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this why we have not yet found signs of intelligent life in the universe? Every time a civilization is advanced enough to really screw up (their) planet, inevitably, they do? Fermi Paradox redux.

It's not a particularly good candidate I would think. For example we know what's happening and could theoretically have stopped it but didn't/don't have the will. The Fermi paradox requires it to be extremely unlikely to survive, but you could imagine scenarios on other worlds where the right kind of political situation was around to stop it.

> but you could imagine scenarios on other worlds where the right kind of political situation was around to stop it.

I can't imagine that. The only evidence I have to date (from a sample size of 1 planet) is that there is next to zero real political will, even if the politicians of the world create additional heat saying they have in fact found the political will.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#175

Post by notatoad »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #153
codecamper wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

go solar. & EV

This won't help clear out methane in the short term, though.

clearing out the methane is the problem. you really, really don't want it to clear out, you want it to stay frozen under the arctic permafrost. the problem is if the ice that's currently keeping all that methane sequestered melts, it releases the gas. We need to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from other sources to curb global warming and keep all that gas frozen away.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#176

Post by zouhair »

_m8fo wrote: post #41

So, assuming we're screwed, where's the best place to move preemptively? I know Boston isn't that place. - I assume the coasts are a nonstarter. - Moving inland could be nice, but the ground would need to be pretty arable to restart civilization there. I'm guessing somewhere in Africa is a safe bet, given the lack of resource exploitation there, but then again, there's not much infrastructure at the moment.

You do know most of the World is living off over exploitation of Africa.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#177

Post by Gustomaximus »

anon1253 wrote: post #69
_m8fo wrote: post #41

So, assuming we're screwed, where's the best place to move preemptively? I know Boston isn't that place. - I assume the coasts are a nonstarter. - Moving inland could be nice, but the ground would need to be pretty arable to restart civilization there. I'm guessing somewhere in Africa is a safe bet, given the lack of resource exploitation there, but then again, there's not much infrastructure at the moment.

I'm betting on the higher regions of Scandinavia or Iceland.

Countries like Norway/Iceland could get significantly colder if the gulfstream stops from arctic melts, which seems likely. Maybe this will improve in time but in the short-term this could be a real problem.

Somewhere like NZ is a better bet. Being remote with no land borders could be an advantage if there is significant global upheaval.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#178

Post by unFou »

knz wrote: post #157
antisthenes wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on whether you have a bunker in New Zealand or not.

New Zealand could be in trouble if ocean acidification happens or weather patterns cause more drought (~80% hydro for energy generation and the arable land relies upon high rainfall).

Can there even be non-localised drought on a small island the size of New Zealand? The only significant geographical feature in the North Island (where most people live) is 3 mountains right in the middle.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#179

Post by wallace_f »

codecamper wrote: post #135
TeMPOraL wrote: post #113

Ok, so how do we unfuck this? What are the promising options, who's working on them, and how can one contribute?

go solar. & EV

>& EV

You can have a bigger impact by bicycling, walking, carpooling or taking public transit. Better yet, work from home.

Depending on the energy mix used to recharge your EV it's not a huge difference in CO2 emissions if you're coming from something fuel efficient to begin with.

Re: Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic

#180

Post by knz »

unFou wrote: post #178
knz wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Zealand could be in trouble if ocean acidification happens or weather patterns cause more drought (~80% hydro for energy generation and the arable land relies upon high rainfall).

Can there even be non-localised drought on a small island the size of New Zealand? The only significant geographical feature in the North Island (where most people live) is 3 mountains right in the middle.

New Zealand is small enough that a localized drought can have significant impact. Most of the people do indeed live in the North Island but most of the power is generated in the South Island, particularly around the Mackenzie Basin/Otago area (dry highlands).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_New_... - sort the hydroelectric by capacity - most of the major dams are in this area.

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