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he incident was
small, but Jason Box doesn't want to talk about it. He's been skittish about
the media since it happened.
This was last summer, as he was reading the cheery blog
posts transmitted by the chief scientist on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which
was exploring the Arctic for an international expedition led by Stockholm
University. "Our first observations of elevated methane levels, about ten
times higher than in background seawater, were documented . . . we discovered
over 100 new methane seep sites.... The weather Gods are still on our side as
we steam through a now ice-free Laptev Sea...."
As a leading climatologist who spent many years studying the
Arctic at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State, Box knew
that this breezy scientific detachment described one of the nightmare long-shot
climate scenarios: a feedback loop where warming seas release methane that
causes warming that releases more methane that causes more warming, on and on
until the planet is incompatible with human life. And he knew there were
similar methane releases occurring in the area. On impulse, he sent out a
tweet.
Read the story in
Esquire to see the tweet - “When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job”.
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