The
world used to be warmer than it is.
The poles were warm. About
55 million years ago Azolla was growing in
the Arctic regions. It
certainly grew in fresh water lakes and rivers. It may even have grown in the
Arctic Ocean. At that time the Arctic
Ocean
was almost completely enclosed by land.
It may have formed layers with fresh
water
on top. As the Azolla
plants died they would have sunk and not
decayed. This locked up
huge amounts of Carbon and the Carbon Dioxide
level in the atmosphere dropped from 3500 Parts per Million to
about
650; the world got much colder.
Ice caps formed at both Poles.
The Sea Level dropped.
In the Arctic
there are fossils of Azolla.
There are
also gigantic reserves of usable energy. This
may be in the form of oil
or coal. There are
certainly huge amounts of Methane Hydrates. This is
a mineral made up of water and methane.
The methane can be released by
heating. Methane is
‘Natural Gas’ which can be used.
So far, economic
methods of releasing this methane on a very large scale have not
been developed. This does
not mean it is impossible, far from it, and people are
experimenting to
find ways of using the methane hydrates.
