An Energy Coup for Japan: ‘Flammable Ice’

[Viking]

Puff, nobody is getting what you mean by "as for the green house effect?" 

The end??

hmm.. good point. I probably had a few more things to say, went to the toilet, forgot and posted... 

The thing about undersea methan hydrates, especially the ones near surface as the ones in the article are (300 meters is near the surface) is that they are essencially open to the atmosphere already and they are leaking methane at a tremendous rate already.

The USGS surveys offshore earthquakes off carolina and have identified a series of massive undersea landslides on the edge of the continental shelf there which exposed these near surface hydrates to the sea resulting in the hydrates melting.

Though the main point regarding the greenhouse effect with this methane is that burning it reduces the greenhouse effect of the relevant gasses substantially and the only reason to do this is to collect the gas and burn it. In terms of greehouse gasses this should be treated like the burning of any other natural gas. The greenhouse "panic" with regards to undersea methane hydrates is overblown, there are real concerns to worry about with regards to greenhouse gas emissions, this isn't really one of them.