See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: Over 4.5 Billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by 2012
Source:
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com
URL Source: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/ho ... rontpage/2007/01/08/01291.html
Published: Jan 11, 2007
Author: John Stokes
Post Date: 2007-01-11 00:37:12 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 282
Comments: 26
Over 4.5 Billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by 2012 Hydrate hypothesis illuminates growing climate change alarm Compiled by John Stokes A recent scientific theory called the "hydrate hypothesis" says that historical global warming cycles have been caused by a feedback loop, where melting permafrost methane clathrates (also known as "hydrates") spur local global warming, leading to further melting of clathrates and bacterial growth. In other words, like western Siberia, the 400 billion tons of methane in permafrost hydrate will gradually melt, and the released methane will speed the melting. The effect of even a couple of billion tons of methane being emitted into the atmosphere each year would be catastrophic. The "hydrate hypothesis" (if validated) spells the rapid onset of runaway catastrophic global warming. In fact, you should remember this moment when you learned about this feedback loop-it is an existencial turning point in your life. By the way, the "hydrate hypothesis" is a weeks old scientific theory, and is only now being discussed by global warming scientists. I suggest you Google the term. Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing the Earth to warm, the central debate has shifted to when we will pass the tipping point and be helpless to stop the runaway Global Warming. There are enormous quantities of methane trapped in permafrost and under the oceans in ice-like structures called clathrates. The methane in Arctic permafrost clathrates is estimated at 400 billion tons. Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2, and the atmosphere currently contains about 3.5 billion tons of the gas. The highest temperature increase from global warming is occurring in the arctic regions-an area rich in these unstable clathrates. Simulations from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) show that over half the permafrost will thaw by 2050, and as much as 90 percent by 2100. Peat deposits may be a comparable methane source to melting permafrost. When peat that has been frozen for thousands of years thaws, it still contains viable populations of bacteria that begin to convert the peat into methane and CO2. Western Siberia is heating up faster than anywhere else in the world, having experienced a rise of some 3C in the past 40 years. The west Siberian peat bog could hold some 70 billion tonnes of methane. Local atmospheric levels of methane on the Siberian shelf are now 25 times higher than global concentrations. By the way, warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons have caused microbial activity to increase dramatically in the soil around the world. This, in turn, means that much of the carbon long stored in the soil is now being released into the atmosphere. Releases of methane from melting oceanic clathrates have caused severe environmental impacts in the past. The methane in oceanic clathrates has been estimated at 10,000 billion tons. 55 million years ago a global warming chain reaction (probably started by volcanic activity) melted oceanic clathrates. It was one of the most rapid and extreme global warming events in geologic history. Humans appear to be capable of emitting CO2 in quantities comparable to the volcanic activity that started these chain reactions. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, burning fossil fuels releases more than 150 times the amount of CO2 emitted by volcanoes. Methane in the atmosphere does not remain long, persisting for about 10 years before being oxidized to CO2 (a greenhouse gas that lasts for hundreds of thousands of years). Chronic methane releases oxidizing into CO2 contribute as much to warming as does the transient methane concentrations. To summarize, human activity is causing the Earth to warm. Bacteria converts carbon in the soil into greenhouse gasses, and enormous quantities are trapped in unstable clathrates. As the earth continues to warm, permafrost clathrates will thaw; peat and soil microbial activity will dramatically increase; and, finally, vast oceanic clathrates will melt. This global warming chain reaction has happened in the past. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rose by a record amount over the past year. It is the third successive year in which they have increased sharply. Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken place, but fear the trend could be the first sign of runaway global warming. Runaway Global Warming promises to literally burn-up agricultural areas into dust worldwide by 2012, causing global famine, anarchy, diseases, and war on a global scale as military powers including the U.S., Russia, and China, fight for control of the Earth's remaining resources. Over 4.5 billion people could die from Global Warming related causes by 2012, as planet Earth accelarates into a greed-driven horrific catastrophe. Bibliographic reference courtesy of Brad Arnold who has an extensive resrarch background on Global Warming. Make comments about this article in The Canadian Blog.
Poster Comment: World faces hottest year ever, as El Niño combines with global warming
posted 10 days ago by Brian S
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: robin (#0)
Well let's hope so. So long as those 4 and a hlaf billion are the world's useless eaters right???
 | This country's priorities are all fucked up. |
#2. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#1)
You might want to check with Henry Kissinger about who qualifies.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#3. To: robin (#0)
It is going to be fun sitting around New Years Eve 2011, getting shit-faced and laughing at all the 2012 doomsayers...again as we did on the eve of 2000.
If I can't convince the Gods, I shall summon the Demons...
#4. To: Brian S (#3)
Well there is a growing problem that this admin is in denial about. However, I'm not sure how wise it is to throw around wild #s and a year.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#5. To: Brian S (#3)
Yep, although I don't remember much of the 2000 New Year's Eve. Something at the Silverdome - Metallica and Nugent or some such, long beer lines.
It is going to be fun sitting around New Years Eve 2011, getting shit-faced and laughing at all the 2012 doomsayers...again as we did on the eve of 2000.
#6. To: robin (#4)
I'm not going to argue against this global warming thing. New weather records are being set. Mother Earth, if science is correct, has a way of cleansing herself every so often(million of years) which if the time is right, doesn't bode well for we creatures squatting on Her soil. But, what better way to go(other than while having sex) than to be part of an earthly 'purge' verus being eradicated in a petty war of nations? Wiping the slate clean for the next 'crop'?
If I can't convince the Gods, I shall summon the Demons...
#7. To: robin (#2)
Yeah I know who qualifies. Luckily for me, it's my hope that one of the new proletariat has a fucking heart attack when lifting my carcass on to the burn pile.
| This country's priorities are all fucked up. |
#8. To: robin (#0)
Let's see...during WWII the Germans and the Japanese were supposed to conquer the world...then the Communists..then it was Japan and its economy...then in the '70s it was global coolling...then it was AIDS...now its Islam and China...and bird flu...and now global warming. People will fall for anything. It's all a bunch of BS.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
#9. To: robin (#0)
False.
By the way, the "hydrate hypothesis" is a weeks old scientific theory
It's not everyone who catches that quick change in quality in that particular portion of Disney's "The Three Little Pigs."
#10. To: Brian S, robin, all (#3)
Cudos. Exactly right. I will begin to pay attention to this non-sense when someone accurately predicts weather a month in advance, much less 10-20-50-100 years in advance! Simply put, the earth is in, and has been for about 80 years, a warming phase which alternates with cooling phases. If we were in a cooling phase now, the same people would be shouting that we are causing a new ice age, and using the same info to prove it! It is all about control of natural resources, such as water, and money and nothing else.
It is going to be fun sitting around New Years Eve 2011, getting shit-faced and laughing at all the 2012 doomsayers...again as we did on the eve of 2000.
The Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
#11. To: richard9151 (#10)
Wrong. Watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". The ice core samples (which go back long before recorded history) prove that the recent and current worldwide temperatures and CO2 levels are at unprecedented levels. Greenland, the polar caps and all major ice forms are melting, and getting holes in them. An ice shelf just detached. Birds are not migrating properly and they are being found dead. There is lots of evidence but this administration has its head in the sand.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#12. To: robin, ferret mike (#0)
The sooner the better. The only way we can save this world is to slaughter a few billion humans. Nature knows best as I'm sure ferret will agree.
"I've been running from the devil and he hasn't caught me yet."--Jason Boland and the Stragglers.
#13. To: richard9151 (#10)
bump
It is all about control of natural resources, such as water, and money and nothing else.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." Sun-tzu
#14. To: YertleTurtle, TommyTheMadArtist (#8)
It's all a bunch of BS. Weren't we all supposed to be dead from bird flu or West Nile by now anyway?
People will fall for anything.
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
#15. To: robin (#11)
Good. Did you know there were viking settlements on Greenland for about 500 years, but then it got too cold to live there anymore? Now Greenland can be settled again and its natural resources exploited.
Greenland, the polar caps and all major ice forms are melting,
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
#16. To: Indrid Cold (#15) (Edited)
But not like this, the settlement hugged the more moderate coastline. As it melts the sea levels will rise and methane gasses will be (and are being) released accelerating the problem. You cannot argue with data coming from the ice core samples. from BBC: Deep ice tells long climate story By Jonathan Amos Carbon dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years, the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica confirms. The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows current greenhouse gas concentrations are unprecedented. The East Antarctic core is the longest, deepest ice column yet extracted. Project scientists say its contents indicate humans could be bringing about dangerous climate changes. "My point would be that there's nothing in the ice core that gives us any cause for comfort," said Dr Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "There's nothing that suggests that the Earth will take care of the increase in carbon dioxide. The ice core suggests that the increase in carbon dioxide will definitely give us a climate change that will be dangerous," he told BBC News. The Antarctic researcher was speaking here at the British Association's (BA) Science Festival. Slice of history The ice core comes from a region of the White Continent known as Dome Concordia (Dome C). It has been drilled out by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica), a 10-country consortium. The column's value to science is the tiny pockets of ancient air that were locked into its millennia of accumulating snowflakes. Each slice of this now compacted snow records a moment in Earth history, giving researchers a direct measure of past environmental conditions. Not only can scientists see past concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane - the two principal human-produced gases now blamed for global warming - in the slices, they can also gauge past temperatures from the samples. This is done by analysing the presence of different types, or isotopes, of hydrogen atom that are found preferentially in precipitating water (snow) when temperatures are relatively warm. 'Scary' rate Earlier results from the Epica core were published in 2004 and 2005, detailing the events back to 440,000 years and 650,000 years respectively. Scientists have now gone the full way through the column, back another 150,000 years. The picture is the same: carbon dioxide and temperature rise and fall in step. "Ice cores reveal the Earth's natural climate rhythm over the last 800,000 years. When carbon dioxide changed there was always an accompanying climate change. Over the last 200 years human activity has increased carbon dioxide to well outside the natural range," explained Dr Wolff. The "scary thing", he added, was the rate of change now occurring in CO2 concentrations. In the core, the fastest increase seen was of the order of 30 parts per million (ppm) by volume over a period of roughly 1,000 years. "The last 30 ppm of increase has occurred in just 17 years. We really are in the situation where we don't have an analogue in our records," he said. Natural buffer The plan now is to try to extend the ice-core record even further back in time. Scientists think another location, near to a place known as Dome A (Dome Argus), could allow them to sample atmospheric gases up to a million and a half years ago. Some of the increases in carbon dioxide will be alleviated by natural "sinks" on the land and in the oceans, such as the countless planktonic organisms that effectively pull carbon out of the atmosphere as they build skeletons and shell coverings. But Dr Corinne Le Quéré, of the University of East Anglia and BAS, warned the festival that these sinks may become less efficient over time. We could not rely on them to keep on buffering our emissions, she said. "For example, we don't know what the effect will be of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems. There is potential for deterioration," she explained. More CO2 absorbed by the oceans will raise their acidity, and a number of recent studies have concluded that this will eventually disrupt the ability of marine micro-organisms to use the calcium carbonate in the water to produce their hard parts.
Science reporter, BBC News, Norwich 
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#17. To: Brian S, Robin, TommyTheMadArtist (#3)
The sun has an eleven year cycle during which it's north and south magnetic poles reverse. During these 11 year cycles there are what is called solar maxes which are a series of solar flares. Mars has been experiencing global warming and they do not have any SUVs. I prefer to call what we are experiencing as solar warming. The next solar cycle ends in 2011-2012.
The Truth of 911 Shall Set You Free From The Lie
#18. To: Horse (#17)
The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows current greenhouse gas concentrations are unprecedented http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=43283&Disp=16#C16
Carbon dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years, the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica confirms.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#19. To: robin (#16)
I can argue with anything, poopykins. Somebody will invent a filter for cows' asses or something.
As it melts the sea levels will rise and methane gasses will be (and are being) released accelerating the problem. You cannot argue with data coming from the ice core samples.
The national nightmare has ended... Now begins two years of watching the Congress play "Kick the Gimp".
#20. To: Indrid Cold, robin (#19)
analyze this:
When the going gets weird the weird turn pro. - Hunter S Thompson
#21. To: Indrid Cold (#14)
I forgot about the West Nile virus...I was too busy duct-taping my house against terrorist gas attacks.
Weren't we all supposed to be dead from bird flu or West Nile by now anyway?
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
#22. To: Dakmar (#20)
my head hurts
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#23. To: robin, lodwick, all (#11)
Robin, just the idea that I would watch something produced at the direction of Al Gore is beyond the pale! He and his entire family are worms! They have been for generations inside the establishment, and they do only what the establishment wants, and nothing more. Actually, Robin, you sound a lot like my mother; she smoked all of her (all-too- short) life, and when I bugged her about it, she ALWAYS referred to the industry supported hacks-doctors who produced report after report about how smoking really, really was not bad for the health. This went on, robin, for more than 25 years, until the facts became so widely known that even more hacks- doctors did not hide the truth. As an interesting aside, two of the more famous of these hacks-doctors were heavy smokers (they used this in their public appearances to PROVE that smoking was not dangerous, or, obviously, THEY WOULD NOT SMOKE!), and they both died as a result of the smoking. A fit end. All you do, robin, is look at the surface; i.e., someone posts info and you latch onto it (just like with the holohoax). So, lets just check your knowledge, shall we? Just to see if you have done any research at all, or, are just posting non-sense. How many glaciers are there in the world, robin?
Wrong. Watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".
The Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
#24. To: richard9151 (#23)
It's finally bozo time richard. Don't bother posting to me again.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
#25. To: Indrid Cold (#19)
To stop all the "greenhouse gases" and "global warming" that are supposed to bump all of us off... Plant more trees. Pain the roofs of houses white. Those two things will have a big effect.
Somebody will invent a filter for cows' asses or something.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
#26. To: robin (#24)
Gee, robin, I am sorry that you are unaware of the purpose of 4um; my posts do not go directly to your puter: they go to 4um as a public anouncement. Were you not aware of that? Sorry, if you were not. And if you post non-sense, I will call you on it, as is my responsibility. You may consider 4um a social circle jerk or something, I do not. I think of it as a serious search for facts and the truth. AND, I resent it when people pick non-sense out of the ether of the internet and post it. Like you do. Without research and checking of facts. So, I will do a little post on so-called global warming and let the facts speak for themselves. The problem being, robin, facts do not mean much to you; you are into feel-good- -feeling-sorry-for-the-jews-and-worrying-about-whatever. That does not mean much to me.
It's finally bozo time richard. Don't bother posting to me again.
The Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest