[ExI] peak fossil by 2020

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark
.


>.Could be. There is a theory that the warming of the ocean could cause
methane clathrate to release methane into the atmosphere causing more
warming because methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon
dioxide; the worry, according to this theory, is that this will lead to a
runaway effect.  John K Clark

 

 

John, that theory suggests harvesting and burning the clathrates.  The
argument is that is better to release the CO2 than all that CH4.

The reason I do not worry about spontaneous clathrate conversion is that the
thermal mass of the ocean is enormous.  Water has a lot of heat capacity for
its mass.  The calculations on that notion are pretty straightforward: it
would take centuries to warm the depths even 1 degree celcius under any
scenario I can imagine.  Have you any sample calcs to suggest otherwise?

spike

 

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