NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS METHANE COULD CAUSE MORE CLIMATE CHANGE THAN CARBON DIOXIDE

TREE HUGGER – More evidence is emerging that methane previously trapped in the permafrost below the Arctic sea is starting to be released into the oceans and potentially into the atmosphere. Research published in Science shows that up to 7 million tons of methane is released annually from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf–a small percentage of total greenhouse gas emissions, but potentially enough to account for recent increases in atmospheric methane levels.

The permafrost of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (an area of about 2 million kilometers squared) is more porous than previously thought. The ocean on top of it and the heat from the mantle below it warm it and make it perforated like Swiss cheese. This allows methane gas stored under it under pressure to burst into the atmosphere. The amount leaking from this locale is comparable to all the methane from the rest of the world’s oceans put together. Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Study lead author Natalia Shakhova said it was too early to say if we’re about to pass a tipping point where massive amounts of stored methane are released into the atmosphere, triggering rapid warming, but that is a concern.

“Our concern is that the subsea permafrost has been showing signs of destabilization already. If it further destabilizes, the methane emissions may not be teragrams [one million metric tons], it would be significantly larger.”

If just 10% of the methane stored in Arctic permafrost were released into the atmosphere it could lead to a further 0.7°C warming all on its own, equivalent to all the warming the world has seen since the industrial revolution.

THE COST OF ROAD SALT

TREE HUGGER – Mountains of salt are spread on snowy roads in North America every winter, and environmentalists have been complaining about it for years. But studies are piling up that indicate that the cost may be too high. Martin Mittelstaedt reports in the Globe and Mail about a new study of Frenchman’s Bay, a lagoon off Lake Ontario by University of Toronto Geologists. The conclusion:

“Our findings are pretty dramatic, and the effects are felt year-round,” said Nick Eyles, a geology professor at the university and the lead researcher on the project. “We now know that 3,600 tonnes of road salt end up in that small lagoon every winter from direct runoff in creeks and effectively poison it for the rest of the year.”

In the community of Pickering, east of Toronto, they apply 7,600 tons of salt. Half of it goes into the groundwater, and the other half right into Frenchman’s Bay.

The salt water “knocks out fish,” Dr. Eyles said, adding that in the most contaminated areas, only older fish can survive, while younger ones move to areas of the lagoon closer to Lake Ontario and its fresher water.

A University of Minnesota study recently studied 39 lakes and three major rivers, and found that 70% of the road salt ended up in the watershed. According to Science Daily.