The Siberian crater saga is more widespread — and scarier — than anyone thought
Caused by "Global Warming" otherwise known as Climate Change.
The Washington Post
At the end of last summer came news of a bizarre occurrence no one could explain. It was a massive crater that just one day showed up. Early estimates placed it at nearly 100 feet in diameter, nestled deep in Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula, a place called “the ends of the Earth.”
The saga deepened. The Siberian crater wasn’t alone. There were two more, ratcheting up the tension in a drama that hit its climax as a probable explanation surfaced. Global warming had thawed the permafrost, which had caused methane trapped inside the icy ground to explode. “Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater,” one German scientist said at the time.
Now, however, researchers fear there are more craters than anyone knew — and the repercussions could be huge. Russian scientists have now spotted a total of seven craters, five of which are in the Yamal Peninsula. Two of those holes have since turned into lakes. And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters, the Siberian Times reported. Dozens more Siberian craters are likely still out there, said Moscow scientist Vasily Bogoyavlensky of the Oil and Gas Research Institute, calling for an “urgent” investigation.
He fears that if temperatures continue to rise — and they were five degrees higher than average in 2012 and 2013 — more craters will emerge in an area awash in gas fields vital to the national economy. “It is important not to scare people, but to understand that it is a very serious problem and we must research this,” he told the Siberian Times. “… We must research this phenomenon urgently, to prevent possible disasters.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-siberian-crater-saga-is-more-widespread-%e2%80%94-and-scarier-%e2%80%94-than-anyone-thought/ar-BBhZntw
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have been wondrous before it turned into oil, gas and a sea floor of bones.
We are in this situation because we are exceptional organisms - exceptional in our problem-solving abilities, but organisms just the same; we follow the standard genetic survival and reproduction imperatives of all organisms.
We can't stop growing, because that's what organisms and their social systems do so long as there are sufficient resources available. However, we can't continue our growth in either numbers or activity for much longer. I personally blame Dennis Meadows and his 1972 book "Limits to Growth" for that... 
Deliberately reversing course or even slowing down isn't possible because that would impoverish people and nations, and everybody wants others to be impoverished, not themselves. They will fight deliberate impoverishment tooth and nail. The existence of sovereign, self-interested nation-states makes international cooperation on de-growth impossible.
We can no longer grow without doing ourselves in; we are already in overshoot by some astronomical percentage thanks to fossil fuels; and our animal nature combined with the structure of our social systems prevents any voluntary de-growth. So we are left with no exit. All we can do is wait, and behave as well as we can in the time remaining.
The link below is to an analysis I wrote two years ago on the issue of human sustainability, based on the work of other scientists in the field. The conclusion is stark: a truly sustainable human population is probably between 7 and 35 million - living like hunter-gatherers. We have absolutely no way to get from here to there with anything remotely resembling a modern civilization.
No really, how sustainable are we?
in the region?
If you look at a topographical map of the peninsula, it looks like it's dotted with craters.
