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I know we are veering from the topic, but this point is important because it overlaps all the threads and forums. We are speaking about blame. And it is obvious to me at least that blaming the masses is foolish considering that as some here note, our actions are part of our basic human nature. What is not necessarily a basic innate part of human nature is the insatiable need for power and wealth that our stewards and over lords have demonstrated time and time again. That is what Cid is getting at and I fully agree. They are the ones who over time have made decisions that affect millions and billions and posterity as well. They are the ones who were instrumental in crafting our world as it is now. At about this point Ibon rightfully points out that blaming is futile and changing people in positions of power would not do much to improve our trajectory. Totally agree. Nevertheless, me and Cid resent when you equate stupidity and naivety with ruthless power lust and greed.

THERE...IS...NO...BLAME. 8000 years ago, we, just through the actions of providing for so many of us in the course of our daily lives, prevented the return to a glacial world. We disrupt the cycle just in the course of living. We had reached overshoot.

The continental shelves submerged. The new subsea regime was warmer. The permafrost began to degrade, and hydrates, due to the warmer regime above and geothermal flux from below began to dissociate, the free methane remaining trapped below the relic permafrost cap.

But now, 8000 years later, that subsea permafrost has degraded to the point that it no longer acts like a cap.

The methane is beginning to release. And that release is accelerating and there is no way to stop it.

The ESAS covers 2 million sq km and at an average depth of 50 meters, the methane does not interact with the water column, but is released directly to the atmosphere, where it quickly rises to the upper atmosphere.

In the stratosphere, the methane breaks down, adding water vapor to the stratosphere forming PSCs. These clouds both act like a blanket keeping the heat in, and as a substrate upon which ozone destroying chemicals form.

Just 1% of the available methane released from the ESAS will cause catastrophic warming.

Since the methane is already releasing in greater and greater quantities and there is no way to shut it off, we are already in an Extinction Level Event, that will run it's full course.

My prediction has always been that this will lead to global crop failures, initiating famine, pandemics, water shortage, and wars over such, leading to a massive die off by 2020.

Looks like we are right on track.

It's interesting to see you waffle back and forth between the above fast-crash "make peace with your impending demise" doomer-porn and usual everyday partisan politics.

I guess old habits die hard.