As Arctic Ocean warms, megatonnes of methane bubble up
New Scientist is reporting, in a story “As Arctic Ocean warms, megatonnes of methane bubble up“, that one of the key tipping points we, and other climate science groups have been predicting for a long time is now actually happening.
Over 250 plumes of gas have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor to the west of the Svalbard archipelago, which lies north of Norway. The bubbles are mostly methane, which is a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Methane, aka Natural Gas or CH4, has a global warming potential of around 21 times that of CO2. However you count it this is very bad news. Right now it seems that the methane being released is being dissolved back into the ocean, but that is just making the ocean more acidic. Should the gas start leaking out into the atmosphere in quantity then we can expect a sudden acceleration in global warming. Delaying your own response to global warming just takes us all closer to this, and other tipping points. If we cross these lines we may never make it back to a world we can call home. — DS