But THIS time it is happening due to our actions and global human civilization is built around a stable climate.

Lets pretend for a moment that humans had nothing to do with the warming we are seeing- don’t you think we would be taking serious action to prevent it?

The Earth and life and probably even humanity will survive climate change- but that is not the issue- Human civilization is far more fragile.

Look at the turmoil the refugee crisis is creating in Europe now- THAT IS NOTHING compared to what is coming as large areas become uninhabitable, and coastal dwellers have to retreat inland.

Of course the billionaires and trillionaires will do fine- and they are the ones making the rules.

The climate denialists are always reminding us that “history tells us climate change is normal and inevitable”, but they are always loathe to consider whether or not it will be so quick or severe that massive human dislocations will occur because the society will be overwhelmed by it. And our own role in provoking these long-term changes for the sole purpose of generating short term profits is conveniently swept under the rug.

The purpose, of course, is to justify their business as usual policy–there is no point in protecting the global environment since it is going to go to hell anyway. Drill, baby, drill!

The Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) was a time of rapid global warming in both marine and continental realms that has been attributed to a massive methane (CH4) release from marine gas hydrate reservoirs. Previously proposed mechanisms for this methane release rely on a change in deepwater source region(s) to increase water temperatures rapidly enough to trigger the massive thermal dissociation of gas hydrate reservoirs beneath the seafloor. To establish constraints on thermal dissociation, we model heat flow through the sediment column and show the effect of the temperature change on the gas hydrate stability zone through time. In addition, we provide seismic evidence tied to borehole data for methane release along portions of the U.S. continental slope; the release sites are proximal to a buried Mesozoic reef front. Our model results, release site locations, published isotopic records, and ocean circulation models neither confirm nor refute thermal dissociation as the trigger for the PETM methane release. In the absence of definitive evidence to confirm thermal dissociation, we investigate an altemative hypothesis in which continental slope failure resulted in a catastrophic methane release. Seismic and isotopic evidence indicates that Antarctic source deepwater circulation and seafloor erosion caused slope retreat along the westem margins of the North Atlantic in the late Paleocene. Continued erosion or seismic activity along the oversteepened continental margin may have allowed methane to escape from gas reservoirs trapped between the frozen hydrate-bearing sediments and the underlying buried Mesozoic reef front, precipitating the Paleocene/Eocene boundary methane release. An important implication of this scenario is that the methane release caused (rather than resulted from) the transient temperature increase of the PETM. Neither thermal dissociation nor mechanical disruption of sediments can be identified unequivocally as the triggering mechanism for methane release with existing data. Further documentation with high- resolution benthic foraminiferal isotopic records and with seismic profiles tied to borehole data is needed to clarify whether erosion, thermal dissociation, or a combination of these two was the triggering mechanism for the PETM methane release.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00288306.2000.9514868

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/29/3/223/191848

I’ve always assumed that the unbroken history of life on earth guaranteed that the global climate might oscillate wildly, but that it would remain between certain extremes. Could this methane release initiate a runaway greenhouse effect, like Venus? And if it could, why hasn’t it happened in the past? Or has it? Ice ages are runaway excursions in the other direction, but the world can recover from them. I don’t think it could reverse a Venus-type excursion.

How about it, Podrock? Can you shed any light on this?

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas that is roughly 30 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2). Both gases are produced in thawing permafrost as dead animal and plant remains are decomposed. However, methane is only formed if no oxygen is available. Until now, it was assumed that larger amounts of greenhouse gases are formed when the ground was dry and well aerated—when oxygen was available. Christian Knoblauch and his colleagues have now demonstrated that water-saturated permafrost soils without oxygen can be twice as harmful to the climate as dry soils—which means the role of methane has been greatly underestimated.

Knoblauch has, for the first time, measured and quantified in the laboratory the long-term production of methane in thawing permafrost. The team had to wait for three years before the approximately 40,000 year-old samples from the Siberian Arctic finally produced methane. The team observed the permafrost for a total of seven years, an unprecedented long-term study.

They found that without oxygen, equal amounts of methane and CO2 are produced. But since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas, it is more significant. Because methane production couldn’t be measured, it was assumed that in the absence of oxygen only very small amounts of it can be formed. “It takes an extremely long time until stable methane-producing microorganisms develop in thawing permafrost,” explains Knoblauch. “That’s why it was so difficult to demonstrate methane production until now.”

“By combining process-based and molecular-microbiological methods, our study shows for the first time that the methane-forming microorganisms in the thawing permafrost have significant influence on the greenhouse gas budget,” adds co-author Susanne Liebner from the Helmholtz Center Potsdam—GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences.

The team has used the new data to improve a computer model that estimates how much greenhouse gas is produced in permafrost in the long term—and they’ve compiled a first forecasts. According to the scientists: The permafrost soils of Northern Europe, Northern Asia and North America could produce up to 1 gigaton of methane and 37 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2100. But there are uncertainties. To what depth will the soil actually thaw by then? Will it be wet or dry? One thing, however, is certain: the new data will enable more accurate predictions about the impacts of thawing permafrost on our climate.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-permafrost-methane.html#jCp