Arctic lakes leaking dangerous gases

[GeordieGirl]

It's a very long article with a lot of ifs and buts, but the bottom line is, it is happening, even if it's just the beginning and we know man is not going to be able to reverse it.

 

https://www.watoday.com.au/environment/climate-change/across-the-arctic-lakes-are-leaking-dangerous-greenhouse-gases-20180926-p5065f.html

 

Set against the austere peaks of the Western Brooks Range, the lake, (Esieh Lake) about 20 football fields in size, looked as if it was boiling. Its waters hissed, bubbled and popped as a powerful greenhouse gas escaped from the lake bed. Some bubbles grew as big as grapefruit, visibly lifting the water's surface several inches and carrying up bits of mud from below.

This was methane.

 As the permafrost thaws across the fast-warming Arctic, it releases carbon dioxide, the top planet-warming greenhouse gas, from the soil into the air. Sometimes, that thaw spurs the growth of lakes in the soft, sunken ground, and these deep-thawing bodies of water tend to unleash the harder-hitting methane gas.

 

If the warming Arctic releases more planet-warming methane, that could lead to ... more warming. Scientists call this a feedback loop.

"These lakes speed up permafrost thaw," Walter Anthony said. "It's an acceleration."

 

From a scientific perspective, the fact that these lakes are emitting methane rather than carbon dioxide does have an admittedly limited upside.

Methane hits the atmosphere hard and fast and then mostly dissipates after a decade or two - far different from carbon dioxide, which is less potent but lingers for centuries or even millennia. So while methane impedes climate progress and amps up the planet's immediate temperature, it does not leave the same long-term legacy.

 

 

[Ahuvah]

Yeah haven't read the article yet, but a lot of highways are becoming buckled because the permafrost underneath them is melting. Some roads are undriveable. I'll take a look at that article later. Thanks for posting.