Methane Clathrates in the news

Once considered a doomsday hypothesis -- some measure of possibility but not likely as the known deposits are too deep in the ocean to be affected by any modest predicted warming. Clathrates are now in the news with some new data that suggests that they can be found very close to the surface as well. From The Independent:

Exclusive: The methane time bomb
Arctic scientists discover new global warming threat as melting permafrost releases millions of tons of a gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane � sometimes at up to 100 times background levels � over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

And you know, in the end there is little we can do about stuff like this. The very idea that we can have an impact is hubris. I am sitting here looking at fresh snow on the mountains and melting frost outside my window. The sun has been in an extended cooing cycle with little or nothing to show any potential for change. Global cooling will hurt civilization a lot more than any warming that might happen.