Nothing is more exciting to a doom monger than a disaster movie. Even a real disaster isn't as good since it can't be safely anticipated, savored and enjoyed repeatedly. Real disasters are so grubby, and they don't lend themselves to ridiculous moralizing and political activism. You might think they would since they are real, but when it's for real the critics out you for your perversions. They point and laugh. A movie sort of keeps it in the closet, gives you plausible deniablility. The fact that you love horror films doesn't mean that you want to become a slasher or a slasher victim or something, and loving disaster films doesn't mean you long for disaster. Or so you can claim.

The pervs at worldwhingeing are dreaming of methane hydrate apocalypse.

RealClimate explores in some detail today just how the frozen methane could melt, and what the result could be if it does so. The situation, as RealClimate sees it, could be disastrous, but there's still a great deal more research that needs to be done. . .

This is all fairly complex, relatively uncertain, and well off the radar of most people thinking about (and worrying about) global warming. It's also a subject that could end up being at least as important as increased storm strength or climate-related global pandemics, possibly a great deal more so. It's going to be hard to make frozen methane exciting -- we're not likely to see a methane hydrate Day After Tomorrow -- but it's important for all of us who talk about changes to the climate to be aware of their potential impact.

You might think that a post titled Understanding Methane Hydrates might say something about its value as a fuel or feedstock that is more energy dense and cleaner than coal or oil. You might think that the research into methods to utilize methane hydrates, and the test drilling and retrieval projects would be discussed, or at least mentioned. But the kind of drab environmentalism of the world whingers and fellow travelers (Grist etc.) is an eschatology, a millennial faith, not a system of thought or even a socio-political movement.

Methane hydrates could as easily be an environmental boon as bane. Mining gigatons of methane hydrates instead of gigatons of coal or oil sands would hugely reduce the amount of carbon expected to be released. As noted in Winter Is Coming, the increase in the price of natural gas, methane, is what is wrecking the UK's arguably naive energy policy making the prospect of increased coal burning a distinct possibility absent a rapidly changed nuclear energy policy and build out.

But that's not at all exciting to a doom monger.