A Siberian Heat Wave is Breaking Kara Sea Ice In March, So is it Time to Start Thinking about Hot Arctic Rivers?
UPDATE 3-22-14:
Feedbacks in the Arctic
"This is more a climate report than a weather report; yet, the extreme weather that did hit the U.K. recently and that is forecast to hit large parts of North America next week may make more people realize that action is needed now. So, please share! At the moment, a large part of Russia is experiencing temperature anomalies at the highest end of the scale, i.e. more than 36°F (20°C) warmer than average past records."
End of excerpt.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE??
Do the words tipping point bring it home? We have now surpassed 400PPM in our atmosphere...WRONG DIRECTION!
Permafrost thaw exacerbates climate change
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UPDATE 3-3-14:
Massive Methane Concentrations Over The Laptev Sea
"As illustrated by above image, the weather is getting more extreme and there is a clear pattern, i.e. the Arctic has been wamer than it used to be, while parts of Asia and North America have been colder than they used to be. This decreases the temperature difference beteen the areas to the north and to the south of the jet stream, which in turn decreases the speed at which the jet stream circumnavigates the globe, resulting in the jet stream becoming more wavier and increasing opportunities for cold air to descend from the Arctic and for warm air to enter the Arctic. In short, the situation in the Arctic is getting worse, increasing the danger of large methane releases from the Arctic seafloor. This spells bad news for the future..."
End of excerpt
To be totally honest I find it amazing that this important news doesn't illicit even one comment. I feel as if I am reporting and updating on this and it is just going out into the ether. It's bad enough the media is totally ignoring this. However, I suppose people on the whole won't care until this entire system breaks down to the point of no return and then it will be too late. (?) Let's just keep reporting on the Oscars caring more about the dresses and the "selfies."
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High methane levels over the Arctic Ocean on February 17, 2014
Excerpt from link:
Above image shows IASI methane readings over the last day or so, when levels as high as 2223 ppb were recorded.
Where does the methane come from?
On above image, methane shows up prominently along the faultline that crosses the Arctic Ocean from the northern tip of Greenland to the Laptev Sea. This indicates that the methane originated from the depths of the Arctic Ocean, where sediments contain large amounts of methane in the form of free gas and hydrates, which have become destabilized.
High methane concentrations have persistently shown up over the Arctic Ocean since October 1, 2013. On January 19, 2014, levels as high as 2363 ppb were recorded over the Arctic Ocean, as illustrated by the image below, from an earlier post.
[ from earlier post, click on image to enlarge ]
Below is a comparison of methane readings for the week from February 9 to 16, 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.
[ from earlier post, click on image to enlarge ]
The above comparison shows that there is a lot of methane over the Arctic Ocean that wasn't there last year.
Furthermore, high methane readings show up where currents move the sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean, in areas such as Baffin Bay. This indicates that methane that is released from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean appears to be moving underneath the ice along with exit currents and entering the atmosphere where the sea ice is fractured or thin enough to allow the methane to pass through."
Salinity levels are also important.
"As the salinity levels of the water on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean increased, the ice that had until then held the methane captive in hydrates on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean started to melt. Indeed, the areas in the Arctic Ocean where the high methane releases occurred on January 14, 2014 (top image) show several practical salinity units (psu) increase since October 1, 2013."
End of excerpt.
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Methane Feedback and Abrupt Climate Change: How Far Are We From It?
Methane Feedback and Abrupt Climate Change, cont.
As outlined previously on this blog the precipitous drop in Arctic sea ice we have been seeing is now causing methane seepage from the depths of the Arctic Ocean. This indicates positive feedbacks that threaten to catapult the Earth into abrupt climate change are now happening. However, we see little if no mention of this even by many environmental organizations and definitely not by the media or this government. They all continue to push their pet causes to either collect donations or push their political agendas for votes. It is very disconcerting to think that even those who claim to be concerned about addressing climate destruction don't seem to be as concerned as they should be now. It is a given that those who become wealthier from selling doubt and lies would ignore this or try to discredit it. However, to see it being ignored and even challenged as untrue by those who certainly know it is true is not only disconcerting but curious.
The previous entries written here about it contain much information to explain how it all works and that abrupt climate change is something that we should all be concerned about. I am baffled by what appears to be the lack of real concern about methane feedbacks in the Arctic by those who claim this to be a planetary emergency. Is it because this is so intense in its possible scope that even those who fight denial are in denial about this? Concentrations of CO2 reached 400PPM last May and have been hovering at that mark ever since. Last year was the 37th consecutive year of above average temperature. We are seeing the trend of more frequent and extreme events pertaining to the hydrologic cycle in concert with rising CO2 concentrations that bring about these feedbacks covering a greater percentage of the globe affecting agriculture, water, social systems and life itself.
Yet, methane seems to be the greenhouse gas that is OK to forget in placing CO2 above it all instead of making the connection between them, even though studies show that methane emissions from shale gas production "undercuts the logic of its use as a bridging fuel over coming decades, if the goal is to reduce global warming.” Yet, the Obama administration and other "leaders" of all political stripes support an "All Of The Above" energy policy that includes fracking of natural gas shale and tarsands ( and though there is rightful vociferous rejection of the Northern leg of the Transcanada/Keystone pipeline, the Southern leg from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast went online in January 2014 with little protest even from some of the same organizations not supporting the Northern leg. This is one inconsistency of the environmental movement that we need to change.) This policy and using it to score political points over the moral imperative is also counterproductive to the goal of keeping us below the threshold of catastrophic climate effects. Using it as a "bridge" to clean renewable energy sources we already have the FULL CAPACITY to initiate is also immoral. I would dare say as well then that Washington DC is also a large producer of methane and it stinks.
Methane gas from methane clathrates (as has been discussed here) has been suggested as a possible cause for rapid global warming events as has happened in Earth's past. The years from 1999 to 2007 saw record thawing of permafrost in Alaska and Siberia (Alaska just experienced its warmest January on record.) Anthropogenic sources of methane are landfills, biomass burning, agriculture (particulary rice) and converting forests to grow monoculture crops for ethanol and biofuels, even down to proliferation of mega dam building which releases methane from organisms in sediments. As a result, we humans have acquired the ability to affect concentrations of other gases in the atmosphere. Methane like CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere and increased methane emissions increase the temperature of the atmosphere.
Also, because warmer climates hold more water vapor through methane emissions humans can indirectly increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as well that is all related to the control knob, CO2. Methane production also occurs by changing the level of the water table. We can directly affect the soil’s ability to act as a source or sink of methane. Warm weather and water-logged soil as we are now also seeing in Britain for example with these intense floods will act as a producer thus increasing feedbacks. This is now also the explanation for its seepage in the Arctic where sediments have been held for centuries in the frozen abyss that is now warming at a pace three times faster than the rest of the globe.
Now, I am not saying CO2 is not important. It is the driver of climate change and its concentrations on land, sea and in air are now bringing the world to a place unseen by humans in all of our existence. However, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas in the short term and its releases due to melting due to burning fossil fuels and other destructive habits is the very spark that can lead the Earth to abrupt climactic shifts on a timescale that we are not prepared to deal with!
Therefore, I hope those reading this take a look at all the information provided at the link posted above. These extreme events in concert with the jet stream becoming more erratic (Arctic amplification) give us a limited time in which to truly take this seriously. There is no time for political initiatives to beg the EPA to push "new plants" alone to decrease their carbon emissions. It must be EVERY SECTOR and it must be now and it must include leaving all fossil fuel reserves currently in the ground there. There is also no more time to continue to use this human crisis as a way to boost individual egos or to give praise to those who claim to be our saviors by throwing their billions at the very corrupt individuals in Congress who enabled this and continue to profit from it! The time for expecting those in government agencies in league with polluters to have an attack of conscience about this is over.
We will not get another chance to do this right. We may already have crossed the tipping point and keeping this information hush hush in order for both political sides to keep their business as usual in an election year is immoral on all counts. This supercedes elections, egos and revenge. This is about telling the truth and starting a global WW2 effort to shut down the cause(s) before irreversible damage is done to the ecosystems that give all species life. But what do I know. I'm just one little person shouting this into the void because I love my son and I want him to have a habitable world.
That requires connecting ALL of the dots before it is too late and having the moral will to make it right.
Do we? Old Arctic Ice Is Disappearing and Taking the Rest of the Ice With It
Methane Microbe May Speed Up Warming
Ready Or Not.- Abrupt Climate Changes Worry Scientists Most
"An expert panel at the National Academy of Sciences is calling for an early warning system to alert us to abrupt and potentially catastrophic events triggered by climate change.
The committee says science can anticipate some major changes to the Earth that could affect everything from agriculture to sea level. But we aren't doing enough to look for those changes and anticipate their impacts.
And this is not a matter for some distant future. The Earth is already experiencing both gradual and abrupt climate change. The air is warming up slowly, and we're also seeing rapid changes such as the melting Arctic ice cap.
Anthony Barnosky, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, says abrupt change is the bigger worry.
"When you think about gradual changes you can kind of see where the road is and know where you're going," Barnosky said at a news conference unveiling the report Tuesday. "When you think about abrupt changes and threshold effects, the road suddenly drops out from under you. And it's those kinds of things we're suggesting we need to anticipate in a much more comprehensive way."
End of excerpt
Arctic Seafloor Methane Releases Double Previous Estimates
NASA Satellites See Arctic Surface Darkening Faster
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