Japan Attempting to Tap Methane Hydrates

The future, quite probably (because it sure ain't the hydrogen or ethanol economy).

Link.

Supplemented with earth's abundant supplies of clean natural gas there should be enough environmentally friendly fuel for everyone.

Methane hydrates (or chlathrates, as they are properly addressed) are 1000x the greenhouse effect of CO2, which they become, when burned.

So, burn them. They generate energy, reduce greenhouse by an enormous amount thereby. Burn that trouble!

Win, Win , Win.

Otherwise, When the ocean's level sink, an unimaginably huge amount of chlatrate is exposed to low pressures. They then explode, and cause a runaway greenhouse effect.

Therefore, being a sensible protector of Gaia, burning them is the "prudent" and preventive option.

Who knows, what happens to them in that case. They may not even consumed!!

Maybe.

IMHO.

Where on earth are you getting your information to come to these conclusions from?

Put down the newspaper, turn off the TV news and have another look at the articles presented on the scientific websites.

Maybe it was meant ironical! (Just guessing/hoping)

The mining of hydrates will not be happening soon if ever. The whole process is fraught with danger. The release of hydrates may be the major cause of the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster. If you google the great site: Royal Society Publishing and do a search on "gas hydrates", "Storegga, "geomorphological hazards" you will come up with a wealth of very pertinent information. Hydrates are locked in deep sea sediments and kept stable by the temperature and pressure beneath the deep slopes along coast lines. We do not have a good measure of the releases today from natural hazards such as earthquakes and many climate models lack sufficient information. In my opinion it is the one area of climate modelling that can be a major stumbling block (add in undersea volcanism) to the accuracy of these models. The Storegga slide is of interest because it is a slide that occurred several times in the same area and triggered tsunamis among other problems.

The huge estimates of methane to be found is the reason people get excited. But to harvest these slopes may trigger slides that could cause tsunamis. I am sure Japan does not want another tsunami in its back yard.

#2 Was very much tongue in cheek. #5 is the farcically serious note.

My bottom line is: hell, if somebody is so fretful about methane ice, burn the damn thing. That reduces its supposed warming potential by a factor of 1000, or so. And produces energy to boot.

It is difficult to mine. Yes, the Norvegiens and Iapanese tried it. The russians are well positioned to do it.

A quite approximate survey indicated many times over the landlocked hydrocarbons, a few years ago.

For a historical comparison: some 150 years ago the first oil drilling took place in Pennsylvania. To the excessive depth of 250feet (?). Now, it is many miles, routinely.