Climate scientists throw cold water on 'Arctic methane bomb' report

Arctic Ocean ice.
(Image credit: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco)

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.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.