Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Dr. Peter Wadhams: Arctic Research & the Methane Risk

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Dr. Peter Wadhams: Arctic Research & the Methane Risk

Click here to access a 27:58m video that features an astonishing interview with scientist Peter Wadams who reports, based on experience, that scientists and funders of research in general are in denial about the climate crisis.

Peter Wadhams is back on ScientistsWarning.TV with a comprehensive analysis of the reticent approach that part of the scientific community has been taking toward the potentially very dangerous methane hydrate situation in shallow Arctic sea waters, in this conversation recorded in March of 2019.

I brought to his attention a video that had been put together by Yale Climate Connections in January 2019, which took the position that there really wasn't too much to worry about in terms of a potential Arctic methane release. Not fully trusting the video's assertions, I wanted Dr. Wadhams' take on it. The conversation touched upon several areas where science and scientists are not as objective as they should be.

Apparently the situation with methane in the Arctic permafrost, both land based, and in this case sub-sea in the Arctic Ocean, is such an immense potential game-changer that it is provoking willful ignorance among many scientists and policy makers.

Dr. Wadhams also notes that a proper risk analysis of methane outbreak at various levels has been missing so far, but should be conducted now as a high priority task.

This, of course, is bad news. I think the explanation for this astonishing discovery is that humans have so long seen themselves as an exceptional species and protected by all kinds of imaginary gods that they simply can't wrap their head around (def.) the fact that their extinction is near.