En-en adult card 42 methane hydrates

Card #42: Methane Hydrates

Causes		Consequences
Melting of Ice Sheets		Energy Budget Carbon Sinks

The Gulf Stream is part of the ocean's thermohaline circulation. It could weaken in response to freshwater input from Greenland's melting ice sheet.
This could disrupt the water cycle even more and reduce the ocean's capacity to absorb more carbon and heat.

Correction

Causes

• Increase in Water Temperature

Consequences

• Other GHGs

Explanation

The two last cards to be added to the Collage after card 40 are potentially violent feedback loops or "climate bombs" which, if triggered, would cause us to lose control over the climate for good.

Thermokarst are veritable bioreactors at the heart of the process of releasing frozen carbon: when the permafrost thaws, pieces of soil detach and fall into the water, bringing nutrients and carbon to the bacteria and plankton present in the sea, which degrade them into CO₂ (in the water layers near the surface) and methane or CH₄ (in the oxygen-deprived bottom).

Other possible links

Other causes

Energy budget If we want to stay within the same logic of energy conservation, the thawing of the permafrost should be linked to the energy budget.