FearWatch: Methane

Image via WikipediaToday's fear-monger hell-in-a-handbasket threat comes from under the sea... the East Siberian Sea, to be exact.

National Geographic reported that a recent expedition travelled along the Siberian coast monitoring methane concentrations in the air and observing the seas. According to the data collected by the University of Alaska expedition on the 22,000km journey, more than 50% of the Arctic Siberian shelf is serving as a source of methane to the atmosphere. Methane gas is currently "bubbling" up from the undersea permafrost. (NatlGeo)

While carbon dioxide gets all the press, methane gas is 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas. And when you take into account this earlier story, where geologist Tessa Hill, at the University of California, Davis, stated that more methane is released into the atmosphere from ocean deposits during periods of warming than previously thought, the implications for our future are not rosy. As the expelled methane increases temperatures it proceeds to release more methane, creating a positive feedback loop. (NatlGeo)

The Result: Doom, the crispy-planet version.

Please ignite your Terror immediately.