Paul Beckwith on the Royal Society controversy

This video of Paul Beckwith follows on from the Russians being excluded from a recent meeting on Arctic sea ice held by the UK Royal Society

A little chat about methane

For about 3 years AMEG (Arctic Methane Emergency Group), to which I belong, has been doing the sandwich board, sky-is-falling routine about the enormous risk of large methane releases from the greatly warming Arctic. 

Support has come from prominent Russian scientists who have been leading teams of international researchers in observing the methane emissions for years, most noticeably on the ESAS (Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf) and in Siberian permafrost. 

And now, it turns out that AMEG views on the risk are supported also by a 2012 paper looking at methane mitigation and risks in the Arctic from (drumroll please)...the LLNL (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). 

Yes, the US government lab that developed the A-bomb. Meanwhile, "methane-deniers" were out in full force at the recent UK Royal Society meeting, which made fun of Peter Wadham's talk, and criticized the Russian work (they were not even invited to speak, and -30 sent a scathing rebuttal to the organizers). 

The plot thickens...

---Paul Beckwith 

Here is some more on the subject

Dr Natalia Shakhova East Siberian Arctic Shelf ESAS Researcher

Professor Peter Wadhams Discusses Subsea Permafrost Methane Releases And Impacts on Civilisation

In this interview conducted in November 2013, Professor Peter Wadhams of University of Cambridge, UK