The Grim Origins of an Ominous Methane Surge

We produced less of the pollutant that normally breaks down methane as we polluted less. Burning fossil fuels can cause aerosols that bounce the sun's energy back into space, which can cool the climate. Cutting out the beneficial effects of NO x and aerosols has some side effects.

George Allen wrote an accompanying commentary on the paper but wasn't involved in the research. That will reduce the effectiveness of measures to fight global warming.

The degradation of northern lands as the planet warms makes it all the more urgent for humanity to take drastic steps to reduce methane and CO2 emissions. The fight to preserve those lands is more urgent due to the growth of emissions. draining soggy peatlands and setting them on fire to convert them to farmland will turn them from carbon sinks into carbon sources. Humans can build roads and housing farther north due to the fact that the Arctic is warming more quickly than the rest of the world. It only makes the problem worse.

The line between human and natural sources of methane is being blurred. Some sectors, such as industry, transportation, landfill, and waste, can be caused by humans, but other sectors, such as polluted waterways and wetlands, can also be caused by humans.

New vegetation is greening the landscape in the northern part of the country. The ideal conditions for methane-belching microbes can be found in the thermokarst, which fills with water and provides the ideal conditions for thaw.

The new research shows that there is a lot of organic carbon locked in there. There is a lot of talk and a lot of speculation about how much greenhouse gasses are going to come out of these areas. You can't really prove it if you don't have on-the-ground data.

The man has been collecting data in the Siberia for months on end. Methane production has risen 2% per year since 2004, according to a paper he recently published. It seems that this doesn't correspond with the thaw of the permafrost. Wetlands could be the source of the extra methane.

Scientists are trying to better understand this complex topic. The new paper can tease apart methane, but on-the-ground data is needed to understand the dynamics. We burn fossil fuels, which warms the planet, which thaws permafrost, and forms bigger methane-emitting wetlands if we don't control carbon emissions. There will be consequences for the rest of the world.

We don't know if we're already seeing a feedback loop. Methane data will need to be collected for consecutive years in order to find the source of emissions. Methane emissions were higher in 2020. James France is a senior international methane scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. It's very hard to mitigate. It reinforces the idea that we need to double down on the areas that we can control.