This past month, there has been a flurry of news, speculation, discussion and debate concerning methane gas escaping from Arctic permafrost and its impact on the global climate system.

就在上个月，关于北极永久冻土层的甲烷气体释出及其对全球气候系统的影响，又出现了一番新闻报道，炒作，讨论和辩论的热潮。

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One big unknown is the stage at which dangerous tipping points would be reached that lead to further warming - for example the release of methane hydrate deposits in the Arctic.

现在存有一大未知数，即到达导致气候进一步变暖的危险临界点时的情形——比如储存在北极甲烷水合物被释放出来。

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Massive releases of methane from arctic seafloors could create oxygen-poor dead zones, acidify the seas and disrupt ecosystems in broad parts of the northern oceans, new preliminary analyses suggest.

新近研究的初步分析表明，从北极海床释放的大量甲烷可能造成缺氧死区，海洋酸化并扰乱北部海洋广大地区的生态系统。

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Methane has previously been extracted from methane hydrate buried deep under Arctic permafrost, but not from ocean deposits.

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"There is quite a lot of suppression and non-discussion of issues that are difficult, and one of those is in fact methane, " he said, recalling a reluctance on the part of at least one senior scientists involved in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment to discuss the impact that a methane release might have.

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"Up to 700, 000 tcf of methane hydrates lie beneath the ocean floor and the Arctic, " Mulva said.

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