More on Global Warming

This is a modified form. I previously goofed up my math.

 

CJ Anonymous says:
    You may have seen a recent report that the Gulf Stream along the East Coast is beginning to unlock billions of tons of methane now frozen as methane hydrate on the ocean floor.  There is speculation as to how much of this will be converted to carbon dioxide by ocean bacteria and how much will be released as methane.  However either way, this is a major source of green house gases completely out of control by humans.  Add to that another major source of methane from anaerobic decay of plant and animal wastes that humans have no control over. It then becomes logical to ask whether or not humans can do very much about global warming.

    It seems to me that prudent conservation is good policy.  However, current measures being legislated and regulated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are extreme, and the negative economic impact far outweighs the value of those reductions.

I reply:    Not to worry about natural events. Worry about the irrational decisions of politicians.
    Let's take a look at the greenhouse gas aspect of methane.
    Thermal conductivity is a measure of the ability of a material to transfer heat. The thermal conductivity of nitrogen, which is about the same as the total atmosphere, is 24 mW/(mK). For methane, it is 33 mW/(mK). This means infrared or heat passes through methane easier than through the atmosphere, and therefore has a negative greenhouse effect of 37%.
    The total weight of the earth's atmosphere is 5.3 X10E15 tons. Let's just say we release 5.3 billion tons of methane from the seafloor. That's 5.3 X 10E9 tons and would increase the total atmosphere to 5.3 X 10E24 tons. The methane content of the atmosphere would then be 1 X 10E-13 %  ((5.3 X 10E9 / 5.3 X 10E24) X 100), which is 1 preceded by 13 zeros; an extremely low concentration. Even though the heat of transmission for methane is 37% higher than that for the atmosphere in general, the low concentration of methane in the atmosphere would make its effect insignificant.