What Will Happen If The Permafrost Melts?

In the last two centuries, the world has seen unprecedented rises in global temperature. This warming threatens the stability of a number of climate systems, one of which being permafrost cover. As this land thaws and melts, it has the potential to release carbon into the atmosphere, speeding up the melting process. If this warming goes unchecked for too long, there is a chance that this system could cross its tipping point, releasing more carbon dioxide to further melt more permafrost. These tipping points are why swift emissions reductions are necessary today, to stop permafrost, or any other climate systems, from going over a slippery slope.

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0:00 Intro
0:53 Permafrost
1:53 Methane Hydrates
3:09 Infrastructure
3:50 Outro
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References:
[1] T. Zhang, R. G. Barry, K. Knowles, J. A. Heginbottom & J. Brown (2008) Statistics and characteristics of permafrost and ground-ice distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, Polar Geography, 31:1-2, 47-68, DOI: 10.1080/10889370802175895

[4] Ruppel, C. D. (2011) Methane Hydrates and Contemporary Climate Change. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):29

[6] Ruppel, C. D., and Kessler, J. D. (2017), The interaction of climate change and methane hydrates, Rev. Geophys., 55, 126- 168, doi:10.1002/2016RG000534.

#climatechange #tippingpoints #planetzero #permafrost #globalwarming

[PlanetZeroVideos]

What other questions about permafrost or methane hydrates do you have? Let us know! 🧊

[bobclifton]

If it melts that will prove it wasn't PERMA-frost won't it.

[ethenaux]

I was agreeing with the video up until the point where you mentioned that a methane bomb is unlikely to go off due to a big portion of methane being stored underwater. That is only partly true. You completely neglected to mention the fact that there's an enormous amount of methane being stored in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf which is only 58 meters deep. This Arctic shelf is shallow enough to allow the Arctic methane to escape in form of bubble plumes into the atmosphere with ease. That alone raises the possibility of the methane bomb going off from 'very unlikely' to 'highly likely'.

[jaybrodell]

The very fact that there are many critters entombed in the permafrost shows that at one time the land was not frozen, at least during the summer. Structures sinking into the permafrost is a well-known problem, which is why many modern structures are built on columns that protect the soil underneath from melting. Of course there is not a lot of melting when winter comes with temperatures below freezing. The daytime temperature today (2/2/2022) at Fairbanks is minus 25 F.

[jeremymanning]

This is exactly what happened 250 million years ago. Due to carbon released by volcanos in Siberia the permafrost melted pushing global temperatures up by 6 degrees.
Roughly 95% of all plant and animal life became extinct.

[AGMI]

2:44 thats not what scientists are saying now they are already mapping methane bubbles along the Laptev Siberian coast over 2000 spots and thats just what they found with their limited resources and time

[zixiddd]

Dr. Guy McPherson says we're all toast in a few years. Due to methane release, which he argues, will take place.

[Pineconepicker]

I much as I enjoyed what you put here, it barely scratches the surface of what is actually happening today. Parts in northern Canada you have marked in red that will be thawed by 2050 were seeing that thaw in the mid 1990's. Northern Baffin Island is one such place. I spent over 5 years in that area before returning south in 1979. Friends from those areas have sent photos and then videos showing the damage and destruction by human abuse of the land. There is a whole lot more, but I'll leave there. Because people don't believe or are unconcerned about anything except their own greed for money.

[a.randomjack]

A technicality: permafrost is like meat in the freezer, it does not melt, it thaws

[JonathanLoganPDX]

May? MAY?! WTF?! The Precautionary Principle says anything that has a High Existential Risk *AND* Significant Uncertainty should make 5 Alarm Bells Ring!! Hello!!

[thezackseven]

There are already plenty of videos from Alaska, Canada and Siberia showing that methane hydrates have started to melt.

[klimatbluffen]

We had the greatest biodiversity when the earth was ice-free ... right now we live in an ice age but we can hope that we get out of it so that life on earth can flourish.

[martiansoon]

Last summer there was record heat and even over 10C temperatures on the top of these methane bomb areas. If this heat will find its way to the shallow (50-150m deep) ocean floor it will melt in record time likely causing wast methane releases. This will be more likely in the future when the arctic ocean is ice free (estimates from 2022 to 2070's). Multiple methane plumes that are reaching over 1 squarekilometer area have been already seen in the ESAS area (East Siberian Arctic Self).

[jerryr]

I saw this a year after this video was posted. And after the oceans all warmed greatly. So I assume the 1% methane release is a lot closer than we thought.

[CitiesForTheFuture]

You didn't mention zombie bacteria & viruses locked away in the permafrost... unless it thaws!

[kevinscottthompson]

reducing pollution reduces our planet's albedo (unfortunatlely). which is the reason why the only known solution to permafrost melting is solar geoengineering.

[yvettedean]

Isnt permafrost currently melting? What is the world doing about this?

[sixvee]

Here's to making scenario SSP5-8.5 a reality. All hail the anthropocene epoch 🙌

[michaelward]

Get to the point where permafrost is starting to thaw and methane gas is released. this is when you are going to see acceleration unimaginably. The end. 👁

[carltontweedle]

Simple light it just a bit of heat, in the atmasphere it can do more damage.