by John Bruno
But methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more persuasive than CO2, has also been growing at an alarming clip, with concentrations more than doubling since pre-industrial times.
A autograph published Thursday in the annual Body of laws reveals that parts of the East Siberian continental shelf, which extends up to 1000 miles out into Arctic waters, show concentrations of methane in integument waters that are 100 times higher than expected. And in the air, more than 5,000 measurements charmed by scientists on Russian icebreakers and on helicopters document methane levels more than four times higher than elsewhere in the Arctic basin.
The researchers, led by Natalia Shakhova of the University of Alaska, along with Swedish and Russian colleagues, found that the amount of methane seeping into the mood from below the Arctic Loads is comparable to prior emissions estimates for all the fabulous’s oceans. The Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the planet, and scientists hesitation that methane emissions could get up even more dramatically in a feedback ring: As the heavens warms, the permafrost that has locked in methane gas in wetlands and below continental shelves melts, releasing more methane, which then warms the planet more.
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