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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Persistently High Methane Concentrations over Beaufort Sea

High methane concentrations have been showing up over Beaufort Sea over the past few days, as shown on the image below. This follows the recent high methane concentrations over the East Siberian Sea.


The persistent character of these very high methane concentrations over the Arctic Ocean indicates that methane has started to erupt from clathrates under the seabed, triggered by very warm water reaching the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

Methane eruptions from hydrates in sediments under the Arctic Ocean helped mean methane levels reach new records, with mean global methane readings as high as 1835 parts per billion recorded at several altitudes on August 17, 2014.


The very high sea surface temperature anomalies that show up on above image give an idea of the inflow of warm water from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. This is further highlighted by the combination image below.

[ click on image to enlarge ]
The situation is dire and calls for comprehensive and effective action, as discussed at the Climate Plan blog.


2 comments:

  1. Sam, is there movement in scientific circles for forcing discussion on Open System Engineering into $?
    Presently the $ has standing as legal tender and Corporate has rights of citizenship at least to bias vote by use of money equated with speech. Corporate $ is merged with Politics- to-War field of Gov..
    Clearing up the closed nature of money relative to Earth keeping HZ via healthy ecosystem whole is the quid essential prerequisite ingredient to go forward with plans large enough to actually keep Sea.

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    1. Among the many approaches are open standards endorsed by government. Elon Musk, June 2014: "We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position". Some of the world's biggest information technology companies, including Google and Canon, last month banded together to form the License on Transfer (LOT) network, which describes itself as "a new kind of royalty-free cross-license", reports phys.org, adding that Volvo patented the design for the V-type three-point safety belt in 1959 and made it freely available. The new safety belt soon afterwards became the industry standard for vehicles worldwide.

      I have for many years suggested a number of things, including that heads of government have emergency powers to overrule legal burdens (including patents) to greater sustainability and to cooling of the Arctic. Furthermore, the feebates approach could also be helpful, e.g. extra fees on rates on land with falling soil carbon, funding rebates on rates where land has increased soil carbon.

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