Huge quantities of methane are held in ice-like structures in the cold northern bogs and the bottom of the seas. They are called clathrates (or cathrates). They are stable only in the cold or under high pressure. Methane is 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2.

The more CO2 we release into the atmosphere by our daily lifestyle choices the quicker the permafrost melts and this could lead to a runaway release of methane.

The estimated amount of methane stored in these clathrates is gargantuan. They are the largest concentration of methane found on earth.

The compression of methane gas in clathrates is enormous. One cubic meter of clathrates brought to the ocean's surface releases 164 cubic meters of methane.

The possibility of violent methane degassing (or "burping") has been called the clathrate gun hypothesis. There is a suggestion that the ocean's bottom waters couldn't warm up to 8°C. If so, that would certainly set off massive clathrate destabilization. This is what turns the clathrates into a ticking time bomb.

These hydrates are already being released. Satellite photos show massive chimneys of methane bubbling off the ocean floor. They are subterranean versions of the gas field fires we saw during the first Gulf War in Kuwait.

We need to become conscious of our carbon use in our daily lives and this will then ripple up to our powers that be. The following video shows methane release on a smalll scale. Recent research is showing that the permafrost in the Arctic is melting fast.