Global Warming

Methane Surge

Concentrations of the powerful greenhouse gas methane increased more last year than since records began in 1983, and scientists say they aren’t sure why.

After plateauing in the early 2000s, atmospheric methane has been increasing steadily since 2007. The gas is 28 times more potent in causing global warming than carbon dioxide and is responsible for about 16% of the planet’s temperature rise. “2020’s increase was double the 2007 growth. It’s even higher than the early 1980s, when the gas industry was going crazy. It’s really scary,” geophysicist Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London told New Scientist. The increase is far greater than atmospheric scientists had earlier predicted.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3fAJFP7