08-06-2014, 08:47 PM
Now that the cause of the mysterious Siberian holes has been shown to be methane eruptions from within the warming permafrost, and a multinational expedition to the Arctic Ocean near the coast of eastern Siberia has reported (
here and here) bubbles from methane plumes originating in warming beds of methane clathrates up to 500 meters beneath the surface, methane has become a newsworthy topic.
The connection to OA is that, as the methane feedback loop gains in strength during the 1st century A.T., it will generate more extreme weather (for example, the "Polar Vortex" type of winter storms will increase in terms of area affected, intensity, and frequency, while summers will not have access to cool fronts from the North to power storm fronts and will be dry and hot) as weather patterns are increasingly deflected away from the warming Arctic. This, in turn, means that the accepted timetable for climate change will prove far too conservative as "milestones" appear years (if not decades) earlier than expected. It may also actually increase the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide as the demand for heating and cooling rises. As global temperatures get hotter, sea levels will rise and (more ominously) the increasingly warm and acidic seawater will release more carbon dioxide than it absorbs (several centuries will pass before equilibrium is naturally restored). As the climate destabilizes, popular and political concerns will demand that research efforts be focused on efforts relating to "solving" the crisis and/or ensuring the survival of human populations in the face of increasingly widespread shortages of food and drinking water. Research efforts lacking that focus will find themselves having to scramble even more than usual to obtain funding. Delays can be expected in the timelines of those developments. Life for the hapless denizens of the home world during the latter part of the first century and much of the following century will not be remembered for being idyllic. Earth, by the middle of the 2nd century A.T., will be a much different place than it was on the original Tranquility Day, with a different mix of landscapes, plant and animal species, and climatic regions.
Radtech497
here and here) bubbles from methane plumes originating in warming beds of methane clathrates up to 500 meters beneath the surface, methane has become a newsworthy topic.
The connection to OA is that, as the methane feedback loop gains in strength during the 1st century A.T., it will generate more extreme weather (for example, the "Polar Vortex" type of winter storms will increase in terms of area affected, intensity, and frequency, while summers will not have access to cool fronts from the North to power storm fronts and will be dry and hot) as weather patterns are increasingly deflected away from the warming Arctic. This, in turn, means that the accepted timetable for climate change will prove far too conservative as "milestones" appear years (if not decades) earlier than expected. It may also actually increase the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide as the demand for heating and cooling rises. As global temperatures get hotter, sea levels will rise and (more ominously) the increasingly warm and acidic seawater will release more carbon dioxide than it absorbs (several centuries will pass before equilibrium is naturally restored). As the climate destabilizes, popular and political concerns will demand that research efforts be focused on efforts relating to "solving" the crisis and/or ensuring the survival of human populations in the face of increasingly widespread shortages of food and drinking water. Research efforts lacking that focus will find themselves having to scramble even more than usual to obtain funding. Delays can be expected in the timelines of those developments. Life for the hapless denizens of the home world during the latter part of the first century and much of the following century will not be remembered for being idyllic. Earth, by the middle of the 2nd century A.T., will be a much different place than it was on the original Tranquility Day, with a different mix of landscapes, plant and animal species, and climatic regions.
Radtech497
"I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into... atoms." Ming the Merciless, Ruler of the Universe