John, > Anyway to safely tap/deplete these enormous energy reserves then? Glass half full...?
According to Benton et al. the economics are not there for commerical extraction in most cases - even with the calthrates which are more dense, because it is a low amount of gas per square mile. There are just a lot of square miles in the far north tundra - as Horace can not doubt attest to. And once it starts leaking into the atmosphere it is 20 times more effective than CO2 so then you get the "runaway" effect very guickly as in auto-catalysis... and then there is no stopping it. Jones
