Methane Hydrates
Posted by Big Gav
Japanese researchers are striving to commercialize the use of methane hydrate as an alternative fuel around 2016 amid reports that Japan has enough deposits to last hundreds of years.
Apparently the volume of methane hydrates available is some 20 times that of natural gas. The US Department of Energy also has a number of programs investigating the use of methane hydrates.
On the downside, methane hydrates are thought to pose a considerable risk of rapidly increasing the proportion of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, thereby accelerating global warming.
There is some evidence that this has happened previously, resulting in the extinction of over 90% of species at the end of the Permian period, which was known as the "end Permian event". This was likely caused by a 6 degree rise in global temperatures (which was originally started by volcanic activity that was then accelerated by the releasing of the methane clathrate layers).
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