Methane Surge
A flurry of blasts in late September on undersea gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany are believed to have caused history’s single largest release of methane into the atmosphere. An expedition rushed to the Nord Stream leaks by Sweden found that methane levels in the Baltic Sea there were about 1,000 times higher than normal.
Methane is a much more powerful, but more short-lived, contributor to global heating than carbon dioxide. It can dissolve in water, but when it reaches the surface, methane transforms back into a gas and is absorbed by the atmosphere. The Kremlin has dismissed accusations that it wrecked the pipelines.
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