Unimaginable quantities of methane — a greenhouse gas 20 to 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide — are stored underground in the Arctic. Some of it is leaking out
By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press You can see them from shore along the Arctic coast or even in some northern lakes — seething domes of water churned up by gas escaping from deep below. “The largest ones have the feeling of a hot tub,” says Scott Dallimore, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada. “They look like floating hot tubs out in the water. They’re bubbling cauldrons of gas. They’re quite spectacular. ” “They’re pure methane.” And that’s the worry. Unimaginable quantities of methane — a greenhouse gas 20 to 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide — are stored underground in the Arctic. Some of it is leaking out. The consequence of all that seeping methane has become one of the biggest questions in climate science. But one thing is certain: The fact it hasn’t been factored into previous global warming predictions means forecasts even as recent as the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change are too conservative. “[Methane] was not considered in any of the predictions at all,” says Andrew Weaver, a Canadian researcher and one of the IPCC authors. …
‘Bubbling cauldrons of gas’ via Democratic Underground
