Arctic Methane Leak: But I Feel Fine*

Posted on March 5, 2010 in Hotspots

The world has had a hard time accepting the dangers of global warming, let alone the possibility of tipping points, whose exact characteristics need further research. But scientists and advocates have also mentioned, somewhat tentatively, that there might well be other risks we incur as the world warms – “unknown unknowns”, in Rumsfeldian terms.

Now a large “unknown unknown” has reared its very ugly head. The oceans of the world routinely release methane, from a variety of processes, as do the soils. A new paper, published today in the journal Science, reports that the East Siberian Arctic Ice Shelf, a 2 million square mile area of the Arctic Sea north of Siberia, is releasing as much methane as the rest of the world’s oceans combined. According to Dr. Natalia Shakhova, lead author of the paper, the release is about 7 teragams, or about 7 million tonnes, of methane annually.