Incredible heat records, Biblical downpours not reported. Scientist Paul Beckwith & Alex get it on the record. Plus from Norway, Pavel Serov on Arctic sea-bed methane risks & rewards.
Interviews and music by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock
In the Affiliates version there is a break and re-intro at 30:11 for stations needing to insert station ID or announcements.
Paul Beckwith is from the University of Ottawa. He's a regular contributor to Radio Ecoshock - and each time it's very popular!
Pavel Serov is with CAGE, the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate at the University of Tromso in Norway. He's just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) "Postglacial response of Arctic Ocean gas hydrates to climatic amelioration."
Their are a lot of warnings about frozen methane ("clathrates") holding more greenhouse gases than may exist in the atmosphere already. As the climate shift warms the seas, will they be liberated, and how fast?
Pavel has studied methane mounds around Siberia and Norway. His colleagues at CAGE just published (June 2nd) another paper saying they've found the ocean bottom there is pock-marked with craters. Serov says these craters are the remains when methane mounds blow up.
Could methane explosions be a danger to shipping? Can countries like China and Japan tap them for more gas to burn? Will the climate be destabilized by them? Lots of important questions to answer, and we get answers from this expert.