Methane (CH4) is 30 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Today, The Washington Post’s story on mysterious craters forming in Siberia reports that the phenomenon might be evidence of methane escaping from melting permafrost.
Last year, the journal Nature reported on research that the amount of methane in the atmosphere from lakes and freshwater sediments worldwide increases several times for each degree that the Earth’s temperature rises.
Computer models show the sensitivity of methane hydrate deposits in the ocean to be released into the atmosphere as the ocean warms. There is no agreement how much methane is down there, but it is many gigatons.
Skeptics can deny that Earth, and even Venus, are vulnerable to runaway greenhouse effects. But the news from Siberia must have all climate scientists pausing.