A research team made a worrisome discovery off the Siberian coast, The Guardian reports. The scientists say they believe they are first to uncover observational evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean have started to be released after determining that methane levels at the ocean's surface were four to eight times higher than expected.
The deposits are considered "sleeping giants of the carbon cycle" and could theoretically expedite climate change, given that methane has a warming effect 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period, The Guardian notes. But while the discovery sounds alarming, it's also been met with skepticism from some climate scientists.
Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, argued there is no evidence Arctic methane had a "big effect" even in earlier periods when the region was warmer than it is now.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The scientists who made the discovery, meanwhile, have acknowledged their work is preliminary, and said the scale of methane releases will not be confirmed until they return and analyze the data. Either way, "there is unlikely to be any major" climate effect "at this moment," Swedish scientist Örjan Gustafsson, told The Guardian from the research vessel. But he did maintain his stance that "the process has now been triggered." Read more at The Guardian.
-
September 17 editorial cartoonsCartoons Wednesday’s political cartoons include a diet of outrage, toxic rhetoric, and tank treads on states' rights
-
The 9 restaurants to eat at this very momentThe Week Recommends They’re award-winning. Isn’t that reason enough?
-
The UK’s opioid crisis: why the stats don’t add upThe Explainer A new report has revealed that the UK’s total of opioid-related deaths could be much greater than official figures show
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warmingUnder the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
Earth's seasons are out of whackUnder the radar The seasons' unfixed nature in different regions of the planet may have impacted biodiversity and evolution
-
At least 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquakespeed read A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan
-
When does autumn begin?The Explainer The UK is experiencing a 'false autumn', as climate change shifts seasonal weather patterns
-
How 'freakosystems' are becoming the normThe explainer Ecosystems are changing permanently
-
Cloudbursts: what are the 'rain bombs' hitting India and Pakistan?The Explainer The sudden and intense weather event is almost impossible to forecast and often leads to deadly flash-flooding and landslides
-
What do heatwaves mean for Scandinavia?Under the Radar A record-breaking run of sweltering days and tropical nights is changing the way people – and animals – live in typically cool Nordic countries
-
Blue whales have gone silent and it's posing troubling questionsUnder the radar Warming oceans are the answer
