https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187661021830136X
July 2018
The methane time bomb
Abstract
During much of the upper Cenozoic, the accumulation of organic matter in
Polar Regions, as well as in bogs in tropical and subtropical zones, has
created large reservoirs of methane, the most potent common greenhouse
gas, vulnerable to release upon a rise in temperature. Global warming,
driving a mean rise of 3 to 8 °C in the Arctic early during 2015- 2018,
is leading toward the release of billions of tons of methane into the
atmosphere, from permafrost, lakes, shallow seas and sediments. This
release threatens to melt large parts of the polar ice caps, leading to
meters to tens of meters of sea level rise. Global warming is a major
factor leading to the disappearance of species throughout the planet at
a rate two orders of magnitude faster than they would have without human
interference. Compounding this effect is extensive drilling for coal
seam gas, perforating the crust in several parts of the world and
releasing commercial and fugitive emissions of methane into the
atmosphere. The triggering of methane release induced by anthropogenic
transfer of carbon to the atmosphere is leading to a major shift in
state of the terrestrial atmosphere and habitats.
[Full paper available at
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S187661021830136X/1-s2.0-S187661021830136X-main.pdf?_tid=7f4b9f61-e9b8-43c1-9288-cb323d2b56a8&acdnat=1547559690_fb15305c9c0efc99867ea254b0faec08]
