Colonising the Arctic: Ample Fuels Under the Ice

EES.LANL.GOV
Methane hydrates are found worldwide in large quantities -- under the seabed, under the arctic tundra, and in other parts unknown. Intensive research has led to increasingly feasible methods of harvesting these frozen methane hydrates -- which when added to huge new terrestrial natural gas finds will increase methane supplies worldwide significantly.

the U.S. Department of Energy's Methane Hydrate Research and Development Program has made considerable progress in the past five years toward understanding and developing methane hydrate as a possible energy resource.

"DOE's program and programs in the national and international research community provide increasing confidence from a technical standpoint that some commercial production of methane from methane hydrate could be achieved in the United States before 2025," said Charles Paull, chair of the committee that wrote the report, and senior scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. "With global energy demand projected to increase, unconventional resources such as methane hydrate become important to consider as part of the future U.S. energy portfolio and could help provide more energy security for the United States."

Methane hydrate, a solid composed of methane and water, occurs in abundance on the world's continental margins and in permafrost regions, such as in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's North Slope. Although the total global volume of methane in methane hydrate is still debated, estimates yield s that are significant compared with the global supplies of conventional natural gas. The existence of such a large and untapped energy resource has provided a strong global incentive to determine how methane might be produced from methane hydrate safely, economically, and in an environmentally sensible way. _SD

Significant challenges to safe harvesting of frozen methane hydrates remain, and must be overcome before economic use of these massive deposits can become commonplace.

Significant challenges to the use of algal fuels also remain to be tackled, but that doesn't stop some researchers from predicting that algal fuels will be available commercially within 5 years! University of Arizona researchers believe that their new photobioreactor -- dubbed "Accordion" -- will help to accelerate commercial development of algal fuels significantly.

Above cross-posted to Al Fin Energy

Which brings us to the topic of colonising the Arctic (and perhaps the Antarctic?). In the frozen wastelands of the great north, one finds ample supplies of oxygen, nitrogen, and water (frozen and thawed alternatively). Carbon sources are typically scarce, as are energy sources. But if viable methods of harvesting methane hydrates are developed, both carbon and energy may suddenly become plentiful. Power, heat, and carbon for synthesis of materials is suddenly available, which opens the door to long term settlement.

Global warming catastrophe is not in the cards, so predictions of a sudden warming of the Arctic appear to be par for the course for climate hysterics. That being the case, it is up to cold climate pioneers to open the vast "wasteland" of the north (and south?).

Conditions in the far north and far south are near-equivalent of ice age conditions. It might be good practise for the not so distant future, to learn survival in a glacial age.

Abundant Arctic Ice Closes in on Inept Expedition

There is no shortage of true believers in CAGW (catastrophic anthropogenic global warming). To demonstrate their faith in the dogma, these naifs continue engaging in epoch quests in harsh polar conditions, to prove that humans are changing cold to hot and ice to water. Too bad they miscalculated--again!

“We’re stuck”
I have slept poorly. The floating ice, while thin, is so prevalent that, throughout the night, it grinds noisily against the side of the boat in a slightly alarming fashion - imagine someone scraping their nails across an old-fashioned blackboard.The then begins earlier than normal and, unusually, I am not woken by Robbie bounding into my room. Instead the ship’s engine roars to life earlier than normal - at around 5.30 - and the MV ‘Havsel’ begins to judder ominously. I clamber out of bed and scramble up to the bridge - all the ship’s crew are there, and they look serious. I look outside and I can see why. The sea is almost entirely congested with ice floes - I would estimate 80% plus of the sea is covered by them. There is a real risk that we could get stuck up here. We have drifted in the night into a much icier area than where we stopped last night. I wake up the team, and everyone groggily makes their way to the bridge. There’s a mixed reaction in the team to the prospect of getting stuck up here.

Google Maps, 80.52397, 12.21224

After awaking to find their vessel frozen in ice the team are steaming around looking for a path that's navigable by kayak.
No paddling today. _TomNelson

This seems to happen at least once a year. Another inept zealot will decide he or she is going to prove that their quasi-religion is the one true faith, and risks his life on the proposition--only to necessitate rescue by professionals, who might prefer these amateurs stay home.

Natural climate cycles and weather patterns are responsible for the ebb and flow of arctic ice, glaciers, and air/ocean temperatures. Humans have very little to do with it. But I suppose there is very little that will stop true believers from competing for the Darwin awards.

ICE! God's Eye View of the Arctic Ice Cycle

The oscillation of the ice is like the heartbeat of a living animal. Awesome to watch. I suspect that sometime in the next few decades the ice will dip farther south--just like in the little ice age. When that happens, the earth will have much more difficulty trying to support all its billions. Newsweek was right back in the 70s. Global cooling is far more dangerous to humans than warming.

But for now, humans can relax and enjoy the modern cornucopia, and polar bears can relax and enjoy the seals (and any climate alarmists who wander out onto the ice!)
;-)

Hat tip Reference Frame

Dirty Snow Responsible for Over a Third of Arctic Warming

Soot from industry in China and other industrial northern nations, and soot from forest fires, is staining Arctic snow darker, helping to cause a substantial amount of arctic warming. Other causes of arctic warming include other atmospheric particles, clouds, land use, solar variability, and possibly greenhouse gases.

The public has a difficult time mentally distinguishing soot and other atmospheric particles from CO2 and other greenhouse gases. That is unfortunate, since the distinction is extremely important when considering the future of climate, and possible human interventions to mitigate possible warming.

Such a huge impact on arctic warming should have been discovered prior to this time, and would have been, if GCM climate models actually had any credibility. The stubborn tendency of climate modelers to refuse to look at other reasons for warming suggests that many other credible causes of warming may have been suppressed in the rush to blame CO2.

New Discoveries in Climate Change

Clever new icebreaking techniques allowed scientists to drill over 400 meters of seafloor core, clarifying climate change over the past 56 million years. By using three icebreakers--one to maintain station over the drill site, and the other two to fend off ice flows--the scientists were able to remain on station at each of four drill sites for up to 9 days.

Results of the 2004 research expedition, led by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and Stockholm University, are reported in the June 1 issue of the journal Nature.

“Little direct evidence about the environmental history of the Arctic Ocean existed before our cruise, partly because of the enormous technological challenges of collecting the samples,” said Kate Moran, professor of oceanography and ocean engineering at URI and co-chief scientist on the expedition. “Our analysis of the core sample suggests that 55 million years ago the Arctic was much warmer than today. We anticipate that our data will be used by climate modelers to give us better information about how climate change occurs and where global climate might be heading.

....The sediment cores provide a surprising Cenozoic Era record of a climate transition from a warm “greenhouse” world in the late Palaeocene and early Eocene epochs to a colder “icehouse” world influenced by sea ice and icebergs from the middle Eocene to the present.

The researchers discovered that 55 million years ago, during a period called the Palaeocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, which was similar in climate to today, the surface temperature of the Arctic Ocean was much warmer than previously believed – perhaps as much as 20 degrees Celsius higher than today. The team was also surprised to find the remains of a large quantity of freshwater ferns, dated to 49.5 million years ago, which suggests that the ocean had considerably lower salinity levels and conditions amenable to the formation of sea ice.

Pebbles and sand in the sediment cores – debris that fell out of floating ice – is evidence of climate cooling 45 million years ago, about 35 million years earlier than previously believed. The revised timing of this Arctic cooling coincides with similar events in Antarctica, supporting the belief that global climate changed symmetrically at both poles.

....This Arctic Coring Expedition was undertaken by the National Science Foundation-sponsored Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, an international research effort that explores the history and structure of the Earth as recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks.....The drilling was done at four sites on the Lomonosov Ridge, approximately 1,000 meters under the sea-surface and 250 kilometers from the North Pole. Source.

The definition of an "ice age", is a time when the earth's poles are covered by ice. By that definition, the earth has been in an ice age for millions of years, with periodic periods of increased glaciation punctuated by much shorter inter-glacial periods. Climate change is merely part of the normal way of earth's climate.

Whether or not humans represent a serious destablising force in earth's climate or not is still a matter of serious debate among scientists. Certainly the sloppiness of many climate "scientists" lends a lot of ammunition to skeptics.

Regardless, it is nice to see real science being done, science that can shed real light on the topic. The earth has been through a lot over the past four billion years or so.