Methane Warning from the Arctic!

The Royal Society has commissioned a study performed by the now well-known husband and wife team from Russia, Natasha Shakhova and Igor Semiletov, concerning the outgassing of methane (CH₄) from the East Siberian Sea Continental Shelf (ESS), which is essentially frozen tundra that drowned when the glaciers receded about 10,000 years ago and since then. There are about 1,600 billion (that's a b) tons (GT) of CH₄ frozen in hydrates.

Now that the Arctic is getting warmer, the marine ice cap is suffering a catastrophic collapse to the fifth or sixth smallest sea ice area on record, warm waters from the Atlantic and Pacific are sneaking in and storms are churning the near-shore Arctic seas from surface to bottom, methane is escaping from the Arctic Seafloor at an increasing rate, particularly at the ESS area. Previously Shakhova and Semiletov stated that 50 GT of CH₄ could escape at any time.

Natasha Shakhova on Methane Hydrates.

And what the Royal Society study has to say is that the Risk of Significant Methane Release from [the] East Siberian Arctic Shelf [is] Still Growing.

From Robertscribbler:

Large plumes of methane bubbling up from the Arctic Ocean sea-bed, saturating the water column, venting into the air, adding significantly more heat forcing to an already dangerous, fossil fuel-based, accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s a nightmare scenario. One in which human-forced warming, already at 1 C above 1880s levels, is further amplified through the feedback release of ancient carbon stored over the past 8 million years of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. And a recent study by the now famous Semiletov and Shakhova team provides still more reason for appropriate concern that such an event may be in the works.

Shakhova and Semiletov’s new study produces an increasingly clear picture of a destabilizing organic carbon store beneath thawing permafrost in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf region. The above images show organic carbon concentration [left frame] and rate of release of methane in grams per square meter per day over observed regions.

By now, many of us are familiar with the controversy over the potential risks of significant-to-catastrophic methane release due to human-forced warming of the Arctic.  An increasing number of observational specialists are pointing toward a risk that rapid human warming will set off the release of still more carbon in the Arctic. For some, this release is expected to be gradual. Others believe there’s enough risk of a rapid release to warrant an equally rapid emergency response.
But regardless of where you stand on the issue, new research coming to light from some of the Arctic’s top observational scientists more clearly describes what appears to be an increasingly dangerous situation.

Increasingly dangerous is right! The present CH₄ overburden is about 1846 ppb (1.85 ppm) which equates to about 5 GT of methane in the atmosphere. An addition of 50 GT of this stuff would add about 18.5 ppm for a grand total of 20.4 ppm of CH₄. At 25 times the heat-trapping efficacy of CO₂ over the lifetime of methane in the air would yield an equivalent of 510 ppm CO₂ E, increasing the global mean temperature by 3 degrees C quite quickly, to about 4 deg C above 1880s values.

Well at least a PB study is suggesting we are nearing peak oil demand. But it might not save us from Hell on Earth! This could be one of those situations where Peak Oil really is no object.

Fin des Voies Rapides, certainement!

Link: http://robertscribbler.com/2015/09/10/new-study-risk-of-significant-methane-release-from-east-siberian-arctic-shelf-still-growing/

Mega Dust Bowl by 2100. And a Refugee Crisis the World Has Never Seen.

As Joe Romm writes in this here article at Think-Progress, by 2100 continued fossil-fuel combustion will cause vast stretches of North America to become a massive dustbowl. Basically, everything from Panama to the the western and central US, and Canada's breadbasket, will be impossible to live in because of centuries-long drought.

Remember that the Medieval Warming period eventually caused a two-century long drought that killed off the Anastazi Indians' culture. They all had to leave, it was so bad.

SOIL MOISTURE

The darkest areas are equivalent to the 1930s USA Great Plains' dustbowl.

From Joe Romm's article:

"The Syria conflict has triggered the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II,” explains the European Commission. As Climate Progress has been reporting for years, and as a major 2015 study confirmed, “human-caused climate change was a major trigger of Syria’s brutal civil war."

But the unprecedented multi-year drought that preceded the Syrian civil war is mild compared to the multi-decade megadroughts that unrestricted carbon pollution will make commonplace in the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, and Central America, according to many recent studies.

Given the current political debate over immigration policy, it’s worth asking two questions. First: if the United States, through our role as the greatest cumulative carbon polluter in history, plays a central role in rendering large parts of Mexico and Central America virtually uninhabitable, where will the refugees go? And second: will we have some moral obligation to change our immigration policy?

If we don’t take far stronger action on climate change, then here is what a 2015 NASA study projected the normal climate of North America will look like. The darkest areas have soil moisture comparable to that seen during the 1930s Dust Bowl.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/08/3699165/refugees-dust-bowl-mexico/

It's been a long time.

I've been busy for quite a while filling paperwork to obtain pro bono legal help solve two real-life financial problems before they blow up in my face. Now that they're done and I will receive an answer in eighteen days, I can add new posts to this blog.

This blog has strayed far from its original intent: the effects of peak oil and related subjects. I've been into the gay marriage fight in California, now surprisingly pleasantly successfully concluded, Bradley now Chelsea Manning's trials, crucifixion for a few years, the Historical Jesus (who?), local things and whatnot. It's time for me to bring this blog back to its original subject.

I may not get to write my own posts for a long time, but I'll keep the blog fed with repostings, usually from the Robertscribbler and Our Finite World blogs. Tomorrow I'll start the reposts. See ya then!

Derelict Buildings cont'd.

This one on Baronne Street corner of Girod.

There's a "For Lease" sign on the side of the building but who's going to rent it in the shape it's in?

Derelict Properties in New Orleans - Photo Essay

There are plenty of derelict buildings in New Orleans -- some in the Central Business District, some on Canal Street and many, many more in the old ghettos. So we'll take a small tour, then!

CBD & Canal Street

Former Hampton Inn - Gravier St

Former Knights of Pythias Temple and the Building Behind it - Loyola Ave at Gravier

University of New Orleans Building - Canal St

University of New Orleans Building - Close-up

Former Days Inn - Canal St

Former Days Inn - Close-up

 

Empty Shell of Storefront - Canal St across from New VA

 

Empty Shell of Storefront - Second Story Windows

Empty Shell of Storefront - Left Hand Side

Commercial Office Building - Canal St looking NW

Commercial Office Building - Canal St looking SE

Commercial Office Building - Left Hand Side

 

Apartment House - Canal St

Apartment House - Right Hand Side

 

Office Block - Canal St

Two-Story House - Canal St

 

Gert Town: Washington Ave, Clio & Edinburgh Sts

Old Mattress Store - Washington Ave & Jeff Davis Pkwy

Two Story House - Clio St

Double Shotgun - Telemachus St from Clio

Two-Family House - Telemachus St at Erato, from Clio

Double Shotgun with Collapsed Roof - Bloomingdale St from Clio St

Single Family House - Clio St at Audubon Ct

Now a Home for the Pigeons!

Single Family with Business - Audubon Ct from Clio St

Storefront - Edinburgh St at Audubon St

Double Shotgun - Edinburgh St

Double Shotgun - Pine St from Edinburgh

Double Shotgun - Lowerline St from Edinburgh

 

Private School or Office Building - Edinburgh St

Lumber Shelter Structures - Edinburgh St

Giving Birth to Demons. Really!?

From Billy Masters' column in the April 30th issue of Boston's Bay Windows:

Joseph Sciambra was a gay-porn star—although I've never heard of him. He's now an ex-gay Christian preaching against homosexuality. He claims that during his gay days, he was hospitalized after some extremely rough anal sex and ( I quote ), "had to have my sphincters almost stitched shut." In a video, he says, "I'm going to talk about the devil and why he loves anal sex. Anal sex releases into the world rare demonic entities and that even in the body could be conceived as the devil and that would be given birth to anally."

Hahahaha. This Sciambra character is clueless. Everybody who knows that we create Gods and Demons with our Brains. And the only thing anal sex gives birth to is bad air. That, and that special substance known as "santorum".

Oops...

I went to the New Orleans CBD Rouse's on Girod and Baronne Streets yesterday. As I left the store out back to the railway station I noticed the sidewalk was raised with stairs for about five feet. At the end of the sidewalk at O'Keefe Avenue, there were two perfect ADA wheelchair access ramps.

This is a HUGE mistake!

 

Nobody in a wheelchair can navigate this sidewalk. They have to go OUT into the parking lot and try to get into the rear entrance that way, or go around the corner and come in at Girod Street.

 

To the architects, engineers, contractors and public officials responsible for this snafu, all I need to do is quote what a certain St. Louis Cardinals fan said to liberal protestors during the Bush years: 

 

"Get a BRAIN! Morans."

 

[sic!]