Scientific paper: The destruction of permafrost in the Laptev Sea provokes methane emissions

 I do not have the time to do this justice right now. But, in brief, it seems to confirm what we already know from observations.

Scientific paper discusses 

extensive release of methane 

from the East Siberian Arctic 

Ocean

This is the paper, just published.

PNAS ,

March 9, 2021 

Significance

Extensive release of methane from sediments of the world’s largest continental shelf, the East Siberian Arctic Ocean (ESAO), is one of the few Earth system processes that can cause a net transfer of carbon from land/ocean to the atmosphere and thus amplify global warming on the timescale of this century. An important gap in our current knowledge concerns the contributions of different subsea pools to the observed methane releases. This knowledge is a prerequisite to robust predictions on how these releases will develop in the future. Triple-isotope–based fingerprinting of the origin of the highly elevated ESAO methane levels points to a limited contribution from shallow microbial sources and instead a dominating contribution from a deep thermogenic pool.

Abstract

The East Siberian Arctic Shelf holds large amounts of inundated carbon and methane (CH4). Holocene warming by overlying seawater, recently fortified by anthropogenic warming, has caused thawing of the underlying subsea permafrost. Despite extensive observations of elevated seawater CH4 in the past decades, relative contributions from different subsea compartments such as early diagenesis, subsea permafrost, methane hydrates, and underlying thermogenic/ free gas to these methane releases remain elusive. Dissolved methane concentrations observed in the Laptev Sea ranged from 3 to 1,500 nM (median 151 nM; oversaturation by ∼3,800%). Methane stable isotopic composition showed strong vertical and horizontal gradients with source signatures for two seepage areas of δ13C-CH4 = (−42.6 ± 0.5)/(−55.0 ± 0.5) ‰ and δD-CH4 = (−136.8 ± 8.0)/(−158.1 ± 5.5) ‰, suggesting a thermogenic/natural gas source. Increasingly enriched δ13C-CH4 and δD-CH4 at distance from the seeps indicated methane oxidation. The Δ14C-CH4 signal was strongly depleted (i.e., old) near the seeps (−993 ± 19/−1050 ± 89‰). Hence, all three isotope systems are consistent with methane release from an old, deep, and likely thermogenic pool to the outer Laptev Sea. This knowledge of what subsea sources are contributing to the observed methane release is a prerequisite to predictions on how these emissions will increase over coming decades and centuries.

This article is from a South African publication

The destruction of permafrost in the Laptev Sea provokes methane emissions

In My City,

2 March, 2021

Scientists have identified the source of methane in the waters of the Laptev Sea: the concentration of the substance is associated with the destabilization of the permafrost at their bottom and the release of ancient gas reserves.

We carried out isotopic measurements, which clearly indicated that the concentration of methane in the waters of the Laptev Sea is increasing mainly as a result of the release of ancient reserves of this gas, hidden under the permafrost layer at the bottom of the ocean. This indicates the possible beginning of the disintegration of this soil layer and the existence of a large reservoir of gas, which can be abruptly ejected into the atmosphere.

Research text

The discovery of such emissions forced scientists to debate where these emissions come from and whether they are all related to the destabilization of ancient permafrost and clathrate deposits.

The authors of the work believe that the release of methane indicates a possible disintegration of the soil layer. There may be a volumetric gas reservoir under the permafrost. With the destruction of the soil layer, all the methane will be abruptly released into the atmosphere. Not so long ago, similar events took place at the bottom of the Barents Sea.

The group of researchers analyzed the isotopic ratios of carbon and three different forms of dissolved methane in the waters of the East Siberian Arctic shelf: they serve as indicators of conditions in the source of gas formation and subsequent diagenetic processes – the transformation of loose sediments into sedimentary rocks.

These measurements showed that, in all cases, the concentration of carbon-14 in methane molecules was close to zero in the vicinity of the alleged gas sources at the bottom of the Laptev Sea and gradually increased with distance from them.

Further research will lead to more accurate conclusions.

The Guardian suggests Covid-like shutdowns every 2 years to meet Paris climate goals

 I have lots to say about this but no time to say it.

Carbon dioxide emissions must fall by the equivalent of a global lockdown roughly every two years for the next decade for the world to keep within safe limits of global heating, research has shown.

Lockdowns around the world led to an unprecedented fall in emissions of about 7% in 2020, or about 2.6bn tonnes of CO2, but reductions of between 1bn and 2bn tonnes are needed every year of the next decade to have a good chance of holding temperature rises to within 1.5C or 2C of pre-industrial levels, as required by the Paris agreement.

Research published on Wednesday shows that countries were beginning to slow their rates of greenhouse gas emissions before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, but not to the levels needed to avert climate breakdown. Since lockdowns were eased in many countries last year, there have been strong signs that emissions will rise again to above 2019 levels, severely damaging the prospects of fulfilling the Paris goals.

Corinne Le Quéré, lead author of the study, said the world stood at a crucial point as governments poured money into the global economy to cope with the impacts of the pandemic. “We need a cut in emissions of about the size of the fall [from the lockdowns] every two years, but by completely different methods,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/03/global-lockdown-every-two-years-needed-to-meet-paris-co2-goals-study

Lockdowns or the planet gets 

it? Guardian ‘accidentally’ 

suggests Covid-like shutdowns 

every 2 years to meet Paris 

climate goals

RT,

4 March, 2021

Helen Buyniski is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23

The Guardian accidentally confirmed the suspicions of a whole lot of conspiracy theorists with an article suggesting a “global lockdown every two years” was needed to meet Paris climate goals. The title was quickly changed.

If carbon dioxide emissions don’t drop by the equivalent of a worldwide lockdown “roughly every two years” for the next decade, the earth will heat to apocalyptic levels, a team of researchers at the University of East Anglia warned in a Nature article published Wednesday.

This apparently so excited a certain strain of climate fanatic on the Guardian staff, that they originally posted the piece under the title “Global lockdown every two years needed to meet Paris CO2 goals – study.” After being dragged mercilessly for such fear porn, the headline was changed to “Equivalent of Covid emissions drop needed every two years – study” with an explainer that “experts say” that “equivalent falls in emissions over a decade” would be “required to keep safe limits of global heating.”

Despite calling for “completely different methods” to achieve and lock in the emissions drop from the pandemic, lead researcher Corinne Le Quéré nevertheless insisted that climate change couldn’t be a “side issue. It can’t be about one law or policy, it has to be put at the heart of all policy.”

Every strategy and every plan from every government must be consistent with tackling climate change.

While Le Quéré didn’t come out and suggest people be arbitrarily deprived of their liberties every two years in order to please a climate model, the other “strategic actions” she mentioned to keep some of the gains of the pandemic were already being implemented – and in many cases had been implemented for years. From city planning to incentivize “active transport” (walking and cycling) and growing public transportation, to promoting remote work where possible, her suggestions were not exactly new – and unlikely to convince anyone they were sufficient enough.

“There is a real contradiction between what governments are saying they are doing to do [to generate a green recovery], and what they are doing,” Le Quéré told the Guardian, calling the phenomenon “very worrisome.” 

Her co-researcher Glen Peters was more explicit in what latitude countries should have to move away from fossil fuels on their own time, calling for “structural changes” to move economies toward renewable energy.

Some on social media, seeing the “quiet part” said out loud on the first edition of the Guardian article, had an “I told you so” moment. The threat of ‘climate lockdowns’ has been alternately presented and “debunked” by mainstream media for months.

…others at first assumed it had to be satire, because no one would post something that on-the-nose –

…except maybe for the World Economic Forum, which actually posted in praise of what lockdowns had done to cities – presumably turned them into uninhabitable hives of snitches where one can’t even take in a Broadway show anymore – earlier this week, before removing its tweet under public pressure. 

The WEF had posted a video praising the “silence” and clearer air – and lack of humans, though they didn’t say that part out loud.

https://www.rt.com/news/516767-world-economic-forum-tweet-deleted/

Potentially important news from the North Pole

 Looking at the 5.0 M Earthquake near the North Pole today with Margo (Mar. 3, 2021)

Germany sees an increase of 41.9 degrees temperature in one week.

 Unseasonable European Warmth Smashes All-Time February Temperature Records

Gizmodo,

16 February  2021

Winter has receded in Europe this week. Temperature records are falling as unseasonably warm weather sweeps across the continent delivering an early spring thaw, even while neighboring Russia is simultaneously going through a deep freeze.

The shocking weather pattern began to creep across the continent earlier this week, but has reached a fever pitch on Thursday as some countries’ all-time February high temperature records tumble. It was particularly balmy in Sweden on Thursday. An area in the country’s southeast recorded a high of 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius), the highest temperature in Sweden ever recorded in February. Though not the hottest temperature recorded in Europe, it’s jarring to see the mercury climb that high for a country synonymous with cold weather.

Poland also set an all-time record as did Lichtenstein, Croatia, Slovenia, and Slovakia, speaking to the widespread nature of the heat wave. Of those countries, Croatia saw the highest overall temperature, clocking in at nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.4 degrees Celsius). Fourteen monthly records for regions in the Czech Republic were also broken earlier this week. All told, temperatures are averaging anywhere from 20 to 30 degrees (11 to 16.7 degrees Celsius) above normal for this time of year.

The nice weather comes on the heels of an aggressive cold snap, sending residents yo-yoing from deep winter to spring in some areas over the course of a week. Germany recorded its biggest-ever boomerang from cold to warm temperatures, logging a low of minus-10.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-23.8 degrees Celsius( in the city of Goëttingen on Feb. 14 to a high of 64.6 degrees Fahrenheit (18.1 degrees Celsius) just seven days later. The previous record spike had been set in 1880. In addition to the heat over Europe right now, freakishly warm air is also parked in the Arctic near the North Pole as well as Greenland.

The warm temperatures are a little too familiar. In 2019, a heat wave swept the continent and delivered record-shattering temperatures in February of that year. The winter heat wave foretold a deadly hot summer, where around 2,500 people died due to excess heat. Researchers found the 2019 heat was at least 10 times more likely due to climate change, an increasingly common finding.

It’s not all balmy sunshiny weather this week, though. Temperature maps show an abrupt shift from warm to cold temperatures roughly dividing east and west portions of the continent. In Russia, temperatures plummeted 25 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 degrees Celsius) below average in some regions.

The reason for the sharp divide between the two regions is a sharp snap in the jet stream, a fast-flowing river of air that travels from west to east. While it can wiggle here and there, every now in then the oscillations can become more extreme, trapping warm air from the tropics in one region and cold Arctic air in another. That’s exactly what’s happening over Europe and Russia respectively right now. Some research has linked extreme waves in the jet stream to increased Arctic warming, which is weakening the temperature gradient between the poles and tropics that normally holds the jet stream more taut. Outbreaks of more extreme temperatures are liable to become more common as a result, in addition to the impacts of other natural climate shifts that can sometimes align such as the Arctic Oscillation.

This week’s European warm wave should cool off a bit as we head into the weekend as a coming front helps break up the high pressure currently camped over the continent.

Germany has seen its its biggest temperature swing since records began - with an increase of 41.9 degrees in one week.

Climate researchers at the German Weather Service (DWD) on Tuesday said the country had never before experienced a swing like the one that occurred at the weather station in the central German city of Goettingen.

A low of minus 23.8 degrees Celsius was recorded there on February 14. Seven days later, on February 21, the high was 18.1 degrees Celsius,

https://thewest.com.au/news/environment/germany-sees-record-temperature-swings-ng-s-2050779

..One idea centers on the pattern of cold air above the Arctic Circle. This pattern, known as the polar vortex, is an area of cold, low-pressure air that swirls in the stratosphere above Earth's North and South poles. When it's strong, the polar vortex spins in a regular pattern, with the jet stream serving as a barrier that keeps cold air contained in the north.

But warm weather can disrupt this system. When temperatures rise, the jet stream weakens and becomes wobbly, sometimes allowing cold air to shoot out across the planet. What may be contributing to disruptions in the polar vortex is a phenomenon called Arctic amplification, which describes how the Arctic has warmed by more than twice the global average in recent decades.

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/texas-snowstorm-arctic

There is more to. this than meets the eye.

Observations of Arctic sea ice in winter

I have done my own comments on Margo's report yesterday and briefly to commentary by Dane Wigington. 

WHY IS ARCTIC ICE BREAKING UP AND MELTING DURING WINTER?

Methane, Sea Ice & Climate Update with Margo (Feb. 21, 2021)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZslR_cfbPpg

Here is Margo's report in full

 

Here is Dane Wigington's full report.

Nearly half of America's wheat crop damaged in polar vortex

The Ice Age bit is of course horseshit, but that does not mean that there is not some useful information here if you use discrimination.

RED ALERT: Food Supply 

Chain Shutting Down as 

Blackouts Spread

 (Natural News) Things are looking pretty bleak across Texas and other Midwestern states where extreme winter weather conditions combined with record-breaking low temperatures left millions without power, while also damaging nearly half of the country’s winter wheat crop.

The Ice Age Farmer channel on YouTube put out a video revealing how minimal snow cover prior to the polar vortex that swept across the Midwest created a perfect storm scenario for the widespread destruction of wheat crops once the historic weather event arrived.

According to reports, about half of Texas’ wind turbines were frozen over in the winter storm, which severely limited energy output throughout the state. On top of that, temperatures in many areas reached well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, which is highly unusual for the Lone Star State.

Up north in the Great Plains, temperature readings were clocked at or below -30 degrees Fahrenheit with not nearly as much snowfall as expected falling to the ground. This left wheat crops exposed to the elements rather than covered in their usual snow blanket, which damaged or killed many of them.

“Commodity Weather Group estimates 30% of HRW #wheat susceptible to significant damage & 15% spotty damage,” tweeted Arlan Suderman about the assessed crop damage thus far.

Others were quick to respond to this tweet with claims that winter wheat loves snow and freezing, however as pointed out by Ice Age Farmer, it was the lack of snow cover in many areas prior to the polar vortex that was the anomaly.

“As temperatures fell to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, there was lots of damage because we don’t have a lot of snow cover right now to insulate the winter wheat crop underneath that,” he says. “It’s just been very exposed to these extreme temperatures.”

There’s a global grain shortage right now

Interestingly, just a few days before the polar vortex hit the United States, Argentina announced plans to discuss strategies for avoiding a ban on wheat exports.

Because there is currently a global grain shortage, countries are scrambling to ensure they have enough of the crop for themselves before they agree to export what remains to places like the U.S.

Should a significant portion of America’s wheat crop end up being destroyed from the freezing temperatures, our nation will require imports from elsewhere in order to feed our own people. If those countries need it for themselves, however, then we could be in a lot of trouble in the coming months.

Back in September, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, interviewed the Ice Age Farmer about what was described as engineered food scarcity to enslave the human race.

What appears to be happening is that food shortages are being engineered through social upheaval, weather events, and other catastrophes that little by little are chipping away at the available food supply.

In time, there could very well be not enough food for everyone, a scenario that was already seen on a much smaller scale with mile-long lines outside of HEB grocery stores in Texas as panicked shoppers rushed to stock up on necessities after the power outages had already begun.

Meanwhile, billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates has been buying up tens of thousands of acres of U.S. farmland to become the largest landowner in the country. These are truly ominous times, in other words.

“Bill Gates spent $171 million to buy 14,500 acres of farmland in Southern Washington, the most expensive U.S. land sale so far this year, according to the Land Report,” wrote one of our own commenters, citing Bloomberg.

“The purchase includes about 10,500 acres of irrigated farmland, 3,900 of rangeland and about 140 in an area known as Horse Heaven Hills.”

More related news about the polar vortex and the damage it caused can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

IceAgeFarmer.com

NaturalNews.com

Texas Goes Dark - 45% US Wheat Damaged

Blackout in Texas

 Texas braces for water & cell service outages as massive blackout leaves MILLIONS freezing in the dark ahead of 2nd snow storm

The snow-covered grounds of the American Airlines Center arena are seen amid a severe 

winter storm in Dallas, Texas, February 15, 2020. ©  Reuters / USA Today Sports / 

Jerome Miron

RT,

17 February, 2021

Cities across Texas are preparing for widespread outages in cell phone and water 

services as the state continues to be pounded by a ferocious winter storm, which 

has already left millions without electricity.

Ravaged by the first storm on Sunday night, Texas’ power grid has taken a beating 

over the last 24 hours, leading to rolling blackouts across the state for around 4.3 

million residents as officials rush to repair ailing infrastructure. The power outages 

have set off a cascade of other problems, knocking some water treatment plants 

and cell phone networks offline. 

A number of cities in central Texas have warned of water issues, with a prolonged 

outage in the city of Pflugerville prompting local officials to ask residents to boil 

water before consuming it in order to destroy harmful bacteria. Manville and Taylor 

have issued similar notices.

Officials in Abilene said the city has lost water service altogether, leaving 124,000 

residents entirely without a reliable source of drinking water on Monday night.

Cell phone providers, including T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, have also seen major outages amid the inclement weather, with the Down Detector site showing large disruptions 

of service throughout Texas. 

People at the Austin Fire Department are battling with the element that is usually 

on their side when they deal with blazes. Water pipes have been bursting by the 

hundreds throughout the city as it was gripped by extreme cold. Responding to 

them was a challenge, since the AFD have their plate full with other emergencies.

Suffice to say, dealing with occasional flooding from an exploded water sprinkler on top of congested roads and cold doesn’t make a trip to Texas the best experience at the 

moment.

Governor Greg Abbott has been taking a lot of flak from Texans who are unhappy 

with how he has dealt with the crisis. He deployed the National Guard and allocated other resources to deal with the power outages. But people say the troops can’t help them make 

their homes warm again.

The public anger is shared by some elected officials, like Dallas County Judge 

Clay Jenkins, who nevertheless suggested bottling up the emotions because right 

now it’s “about human and animal survival.” And it’s not that metaphorical. At least 

two people were reported killed during the storm, apparently perishing to 

hypothermia along Houston-area roadways.

Some storm-trapped people in the Lone Star State wonder why the blackout has 

not become a bigger story for the national media. People can’t tweet when there is ]

no power, so there you are – was one suggested explanation.

https://www.rt.com/usa/515654-texas-national-guard-winter-storm/