Arctic Release Of Methane Now At Deadly Levels

By James Donahue

During the years when scientists were warning us about the "greenhouse effect" of carbon dioxide from the mass burning of carbon based fuels, it was also theorized that if the heating Earth caused the Arctic ice to melt there would also be a huge release of methane gas entrapped in the ice that would intensify the problem.

While the media is not reporting it, the worst scenario imaginable is now happening as the Arctic ice is, indeed, disappearing at an alarming rate. The methane which has been trapped in that ice and deep below the ocean for millions of years started to be released in October, 2013, at "a staggering rate" according to Arctic News. This has world scientists and researchers alarmed, but to date, except for a short video titled "Last Hours," the danger has not been making headlines.

Why are scientists and the media staying silent about this looming catastrophe? Writer Dorsi Lynn Diaz, in a report in the on-line publication Examiner said: "At this point, and the critical state we are in, I think they know we are in such a major crisis that they really can’t make this headline news. They are dancing around the subject trying to figure out what to do and how to proceed with a situation that is blowing all their projections out of the water."

Diaz also wrote that this is "something that is so huge, so frightening and so mind boggling that if people were to wrap their minds around this there would be a mass uprising and mass panic. So we are left in the dark about the potential extinction of our species because certain special interest groups want to continue to profit from the use of fossil fuels and certain governing agencies do not want to create mass panic."

Dennis Hayes, founder of Earth Day Network said: "As Last Hours makes clear, humankind must choose to rein in its carbon emissions now, or Nature will rein them in for us."

Why is the release of so much methane so dangerous? A report in Arctic Times notes that methane has an immediate global warming potential of 120 times that of carbon dioxide. Thus 20 picograms of methane would have an initial greenhouse effect equaling over 2,400 picograms of carbon dioxide.

Once methane gas gets into the atmosphere, it slowly begins to break down into carbon dioxide but the report says that a large release, like that occurring in portions of the Arctic region, "could cause hydroxyl depletion in the atmosphere, extending the lifetime of methane to decades."

A pictogram, which measures this gas at the rate of a portion of one-trillionth of a gram, seems to be such a small amount that it should not concern us. But there already exists a certain level of methane gas in the world’s atmosphere, and a certain amount is being steadily released from the Earth each day. Environmental researchers at Columbia University estimate that a release 1,250 parts per billion per day is a "livable level." But the USGS readings show that the release now occurring in the Arctic is now above 1,950 parts per billion daily.

So how will all of this additional methane affect our world and our lives? A report in Above Top Secret noted: "The seas, lakes and oceans are now pluming deadly hydrogen sulfide and suffocating methane. Hydrogen sulfide is a highly toxic water-soluble heavier-than-air gas and will accumulate in low-lying areas. Methane is slightly more buoyant than normal air so it will all around, but will tend to contaminate our atmosphere from the top down.

"These gases are sickening and killing oxygen-using life all around the world, including human life, as our atmosphere is increasingly poisoned. Because both gases are highly flammable and because our entire civilization is built around fire and flammable fuels, this is leading to more fires and explosions."

The writer suggested in a series of articles that the increased mixture of methane in the air may be the cause of the unexplained "booms," large balls of lights and explosions occurring in the sky at various places around the world, sinkholes, increased volcanism, increased heat waves and increasingly intense storms.