Very Warm Waters are Invading the Arctic Ocean
Source: Arctic News
Global mean methane levels as high as 1836 parts per billion were recorded at several altitudes on August 24, 2014. Meanwhile, the Arctic Ocean continues to warm up. As the image below shows, the ocean heat is felt strongly on the Northern Hemisphere.
Very warm waters from the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans are now invading the Arctic Ocean. Never before in human history have these waters been this warm. In the Arctic Ocean, this is causing very high sea surface temperatures, as shown on the image below.
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| [ click on image to enlarge ] |
The very high temperatures threaten to trigger all kinds of feedbacks, as described in the image below.
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| Feedbacks in the Arctic |
The big danger is that, as the seabed warms up, methane will erupt from hydrates in sediments under the Arctic Ocean. The situation is dire and calls for comprehensiev and effective action, as discussed at the Climate Plan blog.
Source: Arctic News
Here in Alaska, like elsewhere, oil and gas extraction continue being encouraged and supported. Scare tactics by the oil companies, of people losing their jobs, and clamoring for “more oil in the pipeline” have resulted in tax reductions and outright handouts of a billion a year to them. Nearly everyone here seems to have lost his imagination as to alternative energy out of fear of losing his cushy lifestyle. The new power plant under construction at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will run on COAL. Never mind it COULD have been geothermal, and never mind the black soot landing on Denali (Mt. McKinley).
That demon, Royal Dutch Shell, still plans to somehow drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, despite the egregious failures of the last several years. One would call it a comedy of errors if it weren’t so pathetic. Watch what happens as they puncture the clathrates. There’ll be methane fireworks like no one has ever seen in millions of years.