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It is super relevant if it happened before because, even if no human witnessed it, there could be proxy data that shows how this unfolds. It could explain past
by lixtra 7y ago
It is super relevant if it happened before because, even if no human witnessed it, there could be proxy data that shows how this unfolds. It could explain past sudden changes in climate change (and accompanying mass extinctions) that are not yet well understood for example.
- flukus 7y agoMost sudden changes were long enough ago that continents were in a different configuration at different latitudes, so it's not very prescriptive. It's almost definitely played some role but past climate change has almost always been the result of a number of factors coalescing, we have to estimate it's effects on our specific conditions.
- jamesblonde 7y agoThis is pure speculation. Configuration of continents has no affect on a warming ocean releasing large amounts of methane trapped as methane ice (methane clathrates). You then set some arbitrary condition on us understanding the current configuration of continents and how that would interact with the release of methane clathrates based on warming. Sorry this is denialism mascarading as evidence-based requirements. The analysis must be risk based - without requiring absolute certainty. Currently, scientific consensus is there is a risk of large releases of methane from melting Arctic sea ice.
- flukus 7y ago> This is pure speculation. Configuration of continents has no affect on a warming ocean releasing large amounts of methane trapped as methane ice (methane clathrates). TFA is about permafrost and not all clathrates, the word isn't even mentioned in the article and if you bothered to look at a map (https://geology.com/articles/methane-hydrates/ https://geology.com/articles/methane-hydrates/) you'd see they're virtually all on continental shelves or the continents themselves.