I recently received snow. Mine was highly flammable...burnt up most of the yard. ...
That's a first report of that (for me at least) but I have seen photos of flames coming with water from a hose. But, fracking is leading for a few years to US energy independence. (Ground water pollution will last longer). If your report is true, I think it must have been quite cold, fine snow, not big flakes - is that correct?
Here are two photos of "ice" burning (The left one's insert's shows four little green balls representing the hydrogen of a CH4 molecule trapped inside the H2O "cage"):
Right half shows what chunk of the hydrate pulled up from ocean floor looks like.
The scary thing, to me at least, is that there is more Carbon in the CH4 of methane hydrates safely stored, until about a decade ago in Artic tundra and shallow Artic Ocean than ALL THE CARBON THAT EVER EXISTED IN COAL.
Man's rapid* release of CO2, is now causing CH4 "bubble clouds" to rise up in the near shore Arctic ocean where it did not during WWII. I.e. now these clouds "blind" sonars of subs, but did not a few decades ago. We are in a new era of interacting - mutually re-enforcing positive feed back loops which appear to be recruiting still a third and more serious (if that is possible) third positive feed back loop. - I.e. oceans are warming. More fast deeper where the hydrates are decomposing as the ocean surface, which is also warming, but a slower rate because it cools by more evaporation. H2O is a much worse GHG than CH4, which is at least 10 times worse than CO2, on a molecule by molecule basis. Floods and average atmospheric humidity is increasing with the increasing rate of Ocean evaporation.
Humans with their 37C bodies cool by evaporation too. But if the web bulb temperature reaches 35C, and they need to go outside, to buy food , work, etc. they will die with web bulb at 35C, as a 2 degree "delta T" is inadequate to cool their internal 100W heat generation, (more if not just resting in a chair). I.e. I hope we are not already past the "point of no return" - where almost all warm blooded animals are doomed to go extinct! (Hippos etc. that live in water, eating submerged grasses, may survive longer.)
Given the uncertainties and potential extreme seriousness we need to stop burning fossil fuels ASAP. It is easy to do and several renewable organic liquid fuels to replace gasoline exist. The most advanced (Brazil's cars run mainly on it as it is cheaper with zero subsidy) is Sugar Cane based alcohol. It has been powering cars in Brazil for more than 30 years, so is a well proven more reliable technology, requiring only minor changes to the existing IC engines. Very much cheaper than trying to switch to battery powered cars.
*Most take comfort** in the fact that life did not disappear from Earth, even back when the CO2 concentrations were twice what they are today. It is the unprecedented RATE OF RELEASE that is the problem. A CH4 molecule naturally reacts with the small concentration of OH- radical in the air mutually destroying both. More than a decade ago, when OH- concentrations were higher, the "half-life" of CH4 was slightly less than 10 years. Now it is slightly more than 10 years. I.e. the CH4, that bubbled up in the Arctic during 2013, has made the expected half-life for that which bubbles up in 2014, longer and as there is more of it being released, it will do even more to increase the half life of that which bubbles up in 2015! Eventually, when OH- concentration is much lower than even it current low level, most of the CH4 will need to diffuse up into the high atmosphere where the harsh UV can destroy it. (Has energy enough to break the c-h bonds).
I don't know how long that, on average, takes but guess a about a couple of decades - giving twice the current half-life to the CH4 - like doubling the current concentration.
** A little knowledge (CO2 once was twice the current level) is a "dangerous thing."
