Archived

A new study shows that meltwater from glaciers on Svalbard releases methane into the atmosphere. Only a reduction of fossil fuel emissions can help improve the situation, experts warn.

Scientists in Norway have observed for the first time that meltwater from glaciers on Svalbard is helping to release ancient methane deep in the rocks into the atmosphere, Centre for ice, Cryosphere, Carbon and Climate (iC3) reported.

Methane is the most powerful greenhouse gas, with a warming potential 84 times greater than that of CO2 over a 20-year period, and has so far been responsible for around 30% of the current rise in global temperatures.

…

“The Svalbard methane reservoir is estimated to be up to 21,000 Pg of carbon. You can compare this to the fact that our current atmosphere only contains about 780 Pg of carbon. So the source of methane on Svalbard is seemingly limitless”, Dr Gabrielle Kleber [said, and adding] that the newly discovered mechanism by which methane is released into the atmosphere is a consequence of global warming:

This means that even when we’re able to curtail our (human-made) emissions, we may still have these secondary effects that we’ve triggered and will continue to release carbon… It highlights the urgency for action, before we trigger too many of these processes that we cannot stop”.

…