$60 Trillion b/c of Methane?

[ONW]

Is this hyperbole or accurate?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/24/world/climate-arctic-methane/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

"Scientists have long worried that thawing the permafrost soil of the high northern latitudes could release large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. U.S. and Russian scientists who study the region say methane has already started bubbling up from the floor of the East Siberian Sea -- a region believed to hold to 50 billion tons of the gas."

"a risk to which a new study has attached an eye-popping price tag of $60 trillion in the next several decades, on top of previous estimates."

 

[TWDeac]

The methan is stored in these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate

The size of the oceanic methane clathrate reservoir is poorly known, and estimates of its size decreased by roughly an order of magnitude per decade since it was first recognized that clathrates could exist in the oceans during the 1960s and '70s.[18] The highest estimates (e.g. 3×1018 m³)[19] were based on the assumption that fully dense clathrates could litter the entire floor of the deep ocean. Improvements in our understanding of clathrate chemistry and sedimentology have revealed that hydrates form in only a narrow range of depths (continental shelves), at only some locations in the range of depths where they could occur (10-30% of the GHSZ), and typically are found at low concentrations (0.9-1.5% by volume) at sites where they do occur. Recent estimates constrained by direct sampling suggest the global inventory occupies between one and five million cubic kilometres (0.24 to 1.2 million cubic miles).[18] This estimate, corresponding to 500-2500 gigatonnes carbon (Gt C), is smaller than the 5000 Gt C estimated for all other geo-organic fuel reserves but substantially larger than the ~230 Gt C estimated for other natural gas sources.[18][20] The permafrost reservoir has been estimated at about 400 Gt C in the Arctic,[21][citation needed] but no estimates have been made of possible Antarctic reservoirs. These are large amounts, for comparison the total carbon in the atmosphere is around 700 gigatons.[22]


These modern estimates are notably smaller than the 10,000 to 11,000 Gt C (2×1016 m³) proposed[23] by previous workers a reason to consider clathrates to be a geo-organic fuel resource (MacDonald 1990, Kvenvolden 1998). Lower abundances of clathrates do not rule out their economic potential, but a lower total volume and apparently low concentration at most sites[18] does suggest that only a limited percentage of clathrates deposits may provide an economically viable resource.

This type of event(on a larger scale) is thought to have been one of the triggers for the Permian-Triassic extinction event(AKA, The Great Dying.)

 

[Deacfreak07]

Thanks, Obama

 

[HeavyPetter]

How can I harness the release of this natural gas and profit from it?

 

[dot com]

Just cropdust the whole area with Beano.

 

[deacondamo]

Can't we just light a match?

 

[dot com]

If you want to melt the rest of the ice and flash-fry some seals.