Permafrost Thaw in Siberia Creates a Ticking "Methane Bomb" of Greenhouse Gases, Scientists Warn

upstart writes:

Permafrost Thaw in Siberia Creates a Ticking 'Methane Bomb' of Greenhouse Gases, Scientists Warn:

In recent years, climate scientists have warned thawing permafrost in Siberia may be a methane time bomb" detonating slowly. Now, a peer-reviewed study using satellite imagery and a review by an international organization are warning that warming temperatures in the far northern reaches of Russia are releasing massive measures of methane-a potent greenhouse gas with considerably more warming power than carbon dioxide.

It's not good news if it's right," Robert Max Holmes, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, who was not involved in either report, tells Steve Mufson of the Washington Post. Nobody wants to see more potentially nasty feedbacks and this is potentially one."

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the study of satellite photos of a previously unexplored site in Siberia detected large amounts of methane being released from exposed limestone. A heat wave in 2020 was responsible for the emissions along two large strips of rock formations in the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, located several hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle.

[...] The story is simple," the report concludes. Climate change is happening faster than anticipated. One consequence-the loss of ice in the polar regions-is also a driver for more rapid global heating and disastrously rapid global sea level rise."

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