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From the Wayne Madsen Report

February 2-4, 2007 -- WMR previously reported that LNG and oil tankers were reporting that their methane sensors were being tripped by methane bubbling up from deep on the ocean floor -- a sign that rising ocean temperatures are resulting in methane hydrate being turned from ice into gaseous form, a deadly addition to the greenhouse gases already in the earth's atmosphere. A recent paper written by nine American and Canadian scientists (Paull, C. K., W. Ussler III, S. R. Dallimore, S. M. Blasco, T. D. Lorenson, H. Melling, B. E. Medioli, F. M. Nixon, and F. A. McLaughlin) and published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) provides further confirmation about the escape of methane hydrate from the ocean floor into the atmosphere. Their paper's abstract reveals the following alarming results of their extensive study of methane being released from the Beaufort Sea Shelf in the Canadian Arctic:

"The Arctic shelf is currently undergoing dramatic thermal changes caused by the continued warming associated with Holocene sea level rise. During this transgression, comparatively warm waters have flooded over cold permafrost areas of the Arctic Shelf. A thermal pulse of more than 10°C is still propagating down into the submerged sediment and may be decomposing gas hydrate as well as permafrost. A search for gas venting on the Arctic seafloor focused on pingo-like-features (PLFs) on the Beaufort Sea Shelf because they may be a direct consequence of gas hydrate decomposition at depth. Vibracores collected from eight PLFs had systematically elevated methane concentrations. ROV observations revealed streams of methane-rich gas bubbles coming from the crests of PLFs. We offer a scenario of how PLFs may be growing offshore as a result of gas pressure associated with gas hydrate decomposition."

Adding to the in extremis situation regarding the planet's environment comes the report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued at an international meeting in Paris today. Over 2500 scientists representing over 130 countries concluded that human burning of fossil fuels over the last 50 years has directly contributed to a severe increase in atmospheric and ocean temperatures. The result will be more droughts, torrential rains in some areas, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels.

The scientific verdict is in: Earth no longer hangs in the balance. It is in extremis. The global warming naysayers have been proven irresponsible, reckless, and foolish and they now need to shut the hell up and go away.

Rather than calling the UN panel's report "silly science" based on "fuzzy math," aas it has referred to past global warming scientific studies, the Bush White House called the report "significant."

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