The abundant fossil fuel you’ve never heard of

Oh yes, I've heard of this. Fears among climatologists are that if temperatures increase even moderately above minimum predictions these methane hydrates will start melting and releasing methane directly into the atmosphere. If this happens, they exacerbate the warming problem. Methane is a better greenhouse gas than co2, meaning it's more dangerous. Many scientists are afraid that if the ices start melting, it will create a feedback warming loop that will release even more methane. The scenario they fear leads to a mean average temperature above that of just co2 warming. Some have even speculated it's possible to trigger a runaway loop that leads to a Venus situation. While those are still speculations, overall it shows that releasing captured methane is a very bad idea. It is utterly irresponsible to consider mining these materials and putting more greenhouse gases into the air.

We require more vespene gas!

Really? I thought knowledge of undersea gas hydrates was fairly common - just that retrieving them was cost-prohibitive.

That being said, is this really the solution to the fuel crisis? Acknowledging that we are running out of a fossil fuel should change behavior, not encourage more of the same.

There's some interesting but half-baked speculation that hydrates are responsible for some of the strange happenings reported in the Bermuda Triangle.

The idea is that the deposits will spontaneously burp up an enormous quantity of methane from time to time. This causes the ocean to turn into a foam that's much less dense than water: ships sink like rocks in the stuff.

Apparently it also causes some kind of ionization or static charge in the air that can cause navigation instruments to go haywire.

Again, interesting and very much half-baked.

Oh yes, I've heard of this. Fears among climatologists are that if temperatures increase even moderately above minimum predictions these methane hydrates will start melting and releasing methane directly into the atmosphere. If this happens, they exacerbate the warming problem. Methane is a better greenhouse gas than co2, meaning it's more dangerous. Many scientists are afraid that if the ices start melting, it will create a feedback warming loop that will release even more methane. The scenario they fear leads to a mean average temperature above that of just co2 warming. Some have even speculated it's possible to trigger a runaway loop that leads to a Venus situation. While those are still speculations, overall it shows that releasing captured methane is a very bad idea. It is utterly irresponsible to consider mining these materials and putting more greenhouse gases into the air.

Oh yes, I've heard of this. Fears among climatologists are that if temperatures increase even moderately above minimum predictions these methane hydrates will start melting and releasing methane directly into the atmosphere. If this happens, they exacerbate the warming problem. Methane is a better greenhouse gas than co2, meaning it's more dangerous. Many scientists are afraid that if the ices start melting, it will create a feedback warming loop that will release even more methane. The scenario they fear leads to a mean average temperature above that of just co2 warming. Some have even speculated it's possible to trigger a runaway loop that leads to a Venus situation. While those are still speculations, overall it shows that releasing captured methane is a very bad idea. It is utterly irresponsible to consider mining these materials and putting more greenhouse gases into the air.

Just more proof that humanity is not destined for a malthusian end and that doomsday predictions based on lack of resources are misguided. People who claim that human needs grow exponentially and thus must eventually go unsatisfied fail to account for human ingenuity.