Dire Warning: Release of Arctic Methane "May Be Apocalyptic," Study Warns. Another Mass Extinction? (Videos)

3-26-17

A scientific study published in the prestigious journal Palaeoworld in December issued a dire — and possibly prophetic — warning, though it garnered little attention in the media.

“Global warming triggered by the massive release of carbon dioxide may be catastrophic,” reads the study’s abstract. “But the release of methane from hydrate may be apocalyptic.”

The study, titled “Methane Hydrate: Killer Cause of Earth’s Greatest Mass Extinction,” highlights the fact that the most significant variable in the Permian Mass Extinction event, which occurred 250 million years ago and annihilated 90 percent of all the species on the planet, was methane hydrate.

From Protect Mother Earth

Release of Arctic Methane “May Be Apocalyptic,” Study Warns

In the wake of that mass extinction event, less than 5 percent of the animal species in the seas lived, and less than one-third of the large land animal species made it. Nearly all the trees died.

From Gunnar Mallon

Rethinking Methane In the Arctic

Short film about research carried out in the High Arctic looking at sources and sinks of methane in relation to an ever changing climate.