Getting Soggy
Posted on 04. Aug, 2009 by michelemitchell in Environment
When it comes to global warming, it’s not just carbon dioxide we’ve got to worry about–there’s methane, too, and this is about to be the new hipster greenhouse gas to muddle over. Why? Because it’s bubbling up from the permafrost in the Arctic, and because the potential for disaster is so much greater than CO2.
Scientists are concerned that methane released from melting permafrost will trap hot air, raise the air temperature, lead to more melting of more permafrost, which releases more carbon–you get the idea.
Katy Walter Anthony, an ecologist at the University of Alaska, has done some of the seminal work in this area. We cover it in our latest “Minute of Your Time.”