1. The universe is not short of energy. Every star radiates it in abundance. Part of the cosmic material is methane or CH4, which is the carbon atom, with its valency of 4, linked to 4 hydrogen atoms. When the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn, about two years ago, it found a landscape which looked surrealistically like earth, with seas and land carved out by rivers. But it wasn't water. Saturn is very cold, way below minus 100 Celsius. It was liquid methane.
2. The earth itself has a lot of methane. The huge bubble of natural gas off Qatar is mostly methane. In the coming decades, natural gas will become more important as a fuel source. Down in the deep ocean beds, we find huge lakes. Lakes under water? Not of water but of methane hydrate. At high pressure, methane and water molecules combine lattice-like to create these lakes. A couple of years ago, I saw beautiful videos of them at Woodshole Oceanographic Institute at Cape Cod, Massachusetts taken by the deep sea vessel which took pictures of the Titanic. Ringing these lakes were teeming colonies of giant mussels feeding off the methane in complete darkness. Around deep sea vents on the ocean floor which release methane live all kinds of strange creatures like tubeworms which derive their energy from the bowels of the earth.
3. Scientists like Tom Gold, who wrote the fascinating book 'the Deep Hot Biosphere' believe that the earth is charged with methane which is constantly bubbling off to the surface. Trouble is: methane is a greenhouse gas. Whether as methane or as carbon dioxide which is produced when the methane is burned for energy, the release of carbon into the atmosphere aggravates global warming. No one knows how much of global warming is caused by human activity but there is no doubt that human activity worsens it.
4. Qatar has estimated reserves of 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. More and more will be found around the world, often not associated with oil. We don't lack energy. It is all a matter of economics and of preserving the environment which gives us life. Every organism survives by carefully economising on the energy it uses. We have to, too.
George Yeo
I haven't the faintest idea what natural gas is since my background is in the arts and literary field. But methane seems to be an interesting element. Once oil production runs out, I am sure countries with loads of methane will become rich. I was reading an article in a French scientific report that said the nipah palm one sees in the mangrove swamps in SE Asia - has potentially double the amount of oil than the palm oil plant. [It's also the palm that produces the luscious attap chee seeds which Singaporeans love so much in their ice kachang]. It's a pity that all our mangrove swamps in Pulau Tekong no longer exist. I remember there were mangrove swamps with these palms in the 70s when I did my NS. Maybe somebody should look into this?
Have a nice weekend, Sir.
Posted by: Basil Pereira | October 21, 2006 at 09:14 AM