Could it be possible that global warming mavens don't know quite as much about what drives temperature as they'd lead you to believe?:
Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles.Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel –– called Shane Seep –– near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, according to the divers.
Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, according to the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara.
"Other people have reported this type of methane blowout, but no one has ever checked the numbers until now," said Ira Leifer, lead author and an associate researcher with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. "Ours is the first set of numbers associated with a seep blowout." Leifer was in a research boat on the surface at the time of the blowouts.
So temperature change is all about an Inconvenient Toot? By Gaia's roiling innards, Al Gore has some explaining to do.
(Via FR.)
Posted by floridacracker at July 20, 2006 07:26 AMThe least that Earth could do is try to let it out QUIETLY, for goodness sake. I mean the sound of a freight train? This is just RUDE.
Posted by: Dave at July 20, 2006 09:54 AMAnd this news comes on the day Tim Blair links to an article saying the total energy cost of production, operation and scrapping of hybrids cars like the Prius far exceed those of many of the gas guzzlers. More and more evidence is piling up that Gore, et al are nothing more than scare-mongers using two convenient data points out of thousands to push their enviro-wackiness.
Posted by: Retread at July 20, 2006 06:21 PMWell if I use the same eye-squint as Donnah did in a previous post, I read the words " remarkable and unexpected support" but I see a clan of Neander-geobiomethanologists all making helmets out of coconuts, right after they witnessed a falling star.
The nerve...so I guess we're just SOOOOOooo lucky the team happened to be there to hear the freight
train fart heard round Al Gore's world.
csason,
I have a technical question: Can a coconut bra or swimsuit top be substituted for a coconut helmet? I mean, if you cut it in half, you'd get two coconut helmets with chin straps. I'm losing sleep over this.
Posted by: tfhr at July 21, 2006 08:24 PM