The Methane Climate Bomb

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KBOO
Air date: 
Wed, 02/16/2022 - 8:00am to 9:00am
Rapid increase in global methane levels is a bad sign

 

 

After a month hiatus to recharge his batteries, host Paul Roland is back for more unflinching discussion of the five-alarm climate disaster. We've known for some time that the vast quantities of methane frozen in "clathrates" under the oceans and in permafrost are the wild card in climate feedback loops. As the air, land and seas warm with the build-up of greenhouse gases in the biosphere, various tipping points kick off, accelerating global heating further. Some have posited a "clathrate bomb" that could see the release in a relatively short period of time of methane, especially from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Is this what is causing a rapid increase in atmospheric methane?

RRecent studies are showing that "Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have risen at a “dangerously fast” rate and now exceed 1,900 parts per billion, prompting some researchers to warn that climate change itself may be driving the increase." https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/02/14/dangerously-fast-methane-increase-suggests-feedback-mechanism-may-have-begun/?fbclid=IwAR11llxcskYZcmMXVR1b4BebCQpNArHAQEI3uHfHoQjV138bWNylKsPq-cI
Atmospheric methane levels are now nearly triple pre-industrial levels, a news article in the journal Nature states, citing data released last month by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Scientists says the grim milestone underscores the importance of a pledge made at last year’s COP 26 climate summit to curb emissions of methane,” a climate pollutant that Nature cites as at least 28 times more potent than CO2, but is actually 80 to 85 times more damaging over the 20-year span when humanity will be scrambling to get the climate emergency under control.
 

 

 

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