Eilen 15.10. #Metsäkapina jatkui viimeisellä hitaalla marssilla pitkin Helsingin Aleksanterinkatua, yliopistolta ohi Ympäristöministeriön ja päättyen Kolmen sepän patsaalle.
Climate breakdown is occurring faster than most scientists expected, and the pace certainly is far ahead of official projections from the IPCC.
One reason for that could be increased levels of methane in our atmosphere. Methane (CH4), as you may know, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2), though its effects do not last as long, only about 20 years. But during that time, methane increases heating with up to 25 times more vigor. So it's extremely dangerous.
And the more closely scientists look, the more sources of methane they seem to find...
As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published in Nature Geoscience.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University Center in Svalbard, Norway, identified large stocks of methane gas leaking from groundwater springs unveiled by melting glaciers.
The research suggests that these methane emissions will likely increase as Arctic glaciers retreat and more springs are exposed. This, and other methane emissions from melting ice and frozen ground in the Arctic, could exacerbate global warming.
"These springs are a considerable, and potentially growing, source of methane emissions — one that has been missing from our estimations of the global methane budget until now," said Gabrielle Kleber, lead author of the research who is from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.
Scientists are concerned that additional methane emissions released by the Arctic thaw could ramp-up human-induced global warming. The springs the researchers studied hadn't previously been recognized as a potential source of methane emissions.
CO2-peikko lienee tuttu? Nyt tulee metaanihirviö. Ja lämpötilat nousee entisestään:
large stocks of methane gas leaking from groundwater springs unveiled by melting glaciers
Metaanitaso noussee vielä kun sulavien jäätiköiden alta sitä paljastuu lisää. Metaani häviää nopeammin kuin CO2 mutta lämmittää tehokkaammin.
Tekijää ei aiemmin huomioitu. Huippuvuorten lämpeneminen merkki??
Vuosisadan loppuun mennessä noin kolmen miljardin ihmisen elinalueet ovat elinkelvottomia ainakin osan vuotta.
Ilmastonmuutos voi tarkoittaa eksistentiaalista riskiä koko teknologiselle sivilisaatiollemme.
Olisihan se valtavaa haaskausta, jos ilmastokatastrofin suurimmaksi häviäjäksi osoittautuisi teknologinen sivilisaatiomme ja kykymme sivistää itseämme tieteen ja taiteen keinoin.