An international team
of researchers
for the first time have
estimated the methane gas
being emitted
by fresh water areas
such as lakes and rivers.
The study,
recently published
in the journal Science,
showed that these
emissions reduce the net
absorption of greenhouse
gases by land ecosystems
such as forests
by at least 25%.
According to lead author
Professor David Baskvilken
from Linköping
University in Sweden,
whereas small
methane emissions
from fresh water bodies
occur continuously,
abrupt larger emissions
may also occur that
are difficult to measure.
Team member
Dr. John Downing of
Iowa State University
in the USA stated,
“The bottom line is that
we have uncovered
an important accounting
error in the global
carbon budget.
Acre for acre, lakes,
ponds, rivers and streams
are many times
more active in carbon
processing than seas
or land surfaces, so they
need to be included.”
Meanwhile, numerous
other surveys have found
plumes of methane escaping
from sea floor sediments
beneath the Arctic Ocean
and other underwater
regions.
Although cold temperatures
and high pressure
have kept the methane
in a frozen state
for centuries past,
recent destabilization
due to human-caused
global warming could
eventually trigger
a widespread release of
the potent greenhouse gas
at a rate of 16,000 tons
per year.
Research oceanographer
Dr. Tony Koslow
from the University
of California San Diego,
USA explained.
Tony Koslow - Research oceanographer - University of California San Diego, USA (M):
If the sea temperatures
increase sufficiently,
that would lead
to the release of these
methane clathrates,
these frozen methane
in the deep sea. And once
that process starts
it would just snowball.
VOICE:
Oceanographers also
forecast that such
a release would generate
too many methane-
consuming microbes,
creating an imbalance
as they consume the
water's dissolved oxygen
and generate carbon dioxide.
The resulting oxygen
depletion and acidification
of the oceans would
disrupt ecosystems and
form dead zones, which
in turn would undermine
a vital oxygen source
for the entire planet.
Dr. Koslow points
to a major marine
mass extinction event
in the past.
Tony Koslow (M):
One of the real concerns
is that about 55 million
years ago, the best
available evidence is that
much of the methane that
was trapped in the deep
ocean was released
very suddenly
in geological terms,
and this led
to a huge warming.
And it actually led to
the extinction of much
of the life in the oceans.
When paleoecologists
discovered this, only
within about the last
10, 20 years
it's really changed
people's perspective
on how climate change
can happen; very, very
rapidly and how
it can happen through
the release
of this frozen methane.
The key is that we really
have to contain
global climate change.
VOICE:
Our appreciation,
international scientists
for informing us
of the potentially
catastrophic impacts
of unleashing
underwater methane.
May we act swiftly
together to mitigate
global warming so that
the biosphere and planet
may be preserved.
During an international
gathering with our
Association members
in February 2008,
Supreme Master Ching Hai
spoke of the release
of methane and its link
to global warming,
urging for the simple way
to halt it.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: You see, the gases are
fuming from the ocean
and from the land
that's been deforested.
It's fuming everywhere.
It's just that
at the moment,
it's not so intense.
But it'll be
more and more intense
if we don't do something.
Everybody knows
by now, from the UN
Report that meat eating,
animal raising, it's
one of the worst factors,
or even the worst factor
of global warming.
And nobody talks about it.
What is so difficult,
to put down one piece
of meat, and replace it
with one piece of tofu.
Which is exactly
the same, better nutrition.
Better for your health.
More economized.
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/yournews/44766OLD http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60831/title/Methane_releases_in_arctic_seas_could_wreak_devastation
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