Fears mount as Arctic melt prompts historic methane rise
Melbourne’s The Age is reporting Fears mount as Arctic melt prompts historic methane rise.
A global study in Geophysical Research Letters found the first increase in methane levels this century — by about 28 million tonnes since mid-2006 — was in part due to release of gas in and near the Arctic.
CSIRO senior climate scientist Paul Fraser said the data was in line with predictions that rapid melting of Arctic ice would create natural wetlands, one of the most common methane emitters. “This is not good news for global warming,” he said.
The published study comes after British newspaper The Independent reported that scientists aboard a Russian research ship had found millions of tonnes of subsea methane was bubbling to the surface and being released into the atmosphere off the Siberian coast this northern summer.
This is very very bad news. The melting of Siberian and Arctic permafrost is considered one of the nastiest of ‘tipping points’, points at which effects become self-reinforcing and ‘run-away’. — DS
