Global Warming and Underwater Methane: Not a Good Thing

Posted on July 21, 2006

The scientific evidence about global warming just keeps getting more and more disturbing. A new report concludes that when warmer temperatures melt the ice at the north and south pole, huge deposits of methane gas will be released, which will itself cause more global warming, as well as devastating tsunamis.

You remember our friend, methane gas? Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It's found under the ocean, trapped in methane hydrate -- an ice-like solid made of methane and water -- usually along a continental shelf. If the ice melts or the ocean floor sediments are disturbed, the methane gas is released into the atmosphere.

Dr. Ira Leifer, a marine scientist at University of California Santa Barbara, told Reuters, "We may have less time than we think to do something (about the prospect of global warming)."

The irony here is that there is enough natural gas (which is primarily composed of methane, in combinaton with ethane, propane, butane, helium and one or two other gases) trapped in the the ocean floor to power the entire world's power needs for quite awhile. Unfortunately, no one has figured out how to extract the methane safely.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there is 100,000 to 300 million trillion cu. ft. of methane in hydrate form in the Earth's oceans. Brad Tomer, director of the Department of Energy's Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil, told Popular Mechanics, "There's more energy potential locked up in methane hydrate formations across the world than in all other fossil energy resources combined."

So, if we could figure out how to extract methane safely, we could solve our energy needs, until we figure out table top fusion or some other revolutionary energy source. But if we don't drastically reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, the methane gas trapped in the Arctic ice could be released, causing more global warming and tsunamis.

This would be an excellent time to make sure that flood insurance on your house is up to date.