Our regular readers know we have posted often on global warming and climate change. While I don’t think a single study warrants a lot of concern, I recently read about a discovery of methane vents off the US east coast that promises confirmation soon.

“The ease of access has set off an exploration stampede, with several new projects in planning stages or already funded… ‘We’re setting the stage for a decade of discovery.'”

Unfortunately, these vents do not mark gas pockets that drillers can extract.

A study of a few seeps in 2013 found “them teeming with crabs, fish and mussel beds,” which sounds good to me. In deeper, colder waters, the seeps could be a natural laboratory for studying how methane hydrates respond to warmer oceans. There’s little in nature that’s all good or all bad. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, so releases could accelerate the documented trends in global temperatures.

For me, this discovery demonstrates that there is a lot we don’t know about the world. Also, that science is the right process for learning more. I accept that I will never know enough to make 100% sure predictions about climate change, which is hardly unique.

I’ve observed that polemics lead people to take harder and harder positions on narrower and narrower arguments. I think old political habits are getting in our way. What the global warming debate needs is wider discussion; on mitigation measures as well as reductions in human contributions via pollution, land use, etc. Balancing costs and benefits is nothing new. Let’s do it.