As We Squabble, a Great Tipping Point Begins

As climate skepticism rises and the old energy oligarchs throw millions upon millions battling clean energy legislation, one of the great predicted climate tipping points has apparently started: methane. Specifically, researchers have reported in Science that methane trapped under sub-arctic permafrost has started leech out, evidenced by significantly higher atmospheric concentrations of methane in these regions compared to the rest of the world. This is scary stuff. Methane even in limited amounts could begin to tip the scales significantly because, from a heat-trapping standpoint, it's 25 times more potent than CO2. The NYTimes has done a nice story summarizing the work.


But the realities of climate tipping points are fairly moot in this whole debate, which Grist has compared to the OJ Simpson trial. The climate skeptics will focus on attacking the process with which the climate science has been created over the past several decades rather than attacking the science itself. This may buy them enough time to screw us all over.