> [Original Message] > From: Piper R.W. Hollier <[email protected]> > To: Anthony Ingraham <[email protected]> > Date: 1/7/2010 9:56:27 AM > Subject: Methane release "looks stronger" > > Hi Tony, > > More bad news about methane releases (still "below the fold"; is > anyone paying attention?): > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8437703.stm > > ... and BBC's "science reporter" Michael Fitzpatrick appears to be > blissfully unaware of the study published in Science last November > that found that methane is not "about 20 times more potent than CO2 > at trapping solar heat," as he states, but is quite possibly about 33 > times more potent. > > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article68959 07.ece > > Underestimating the role played by methane in warming processes may > be one of the main reasons why we are at or beyond the most > pessimistic predictions of warming curves calculated from climate > models. Last fall I heard from Rob Dorland of the KNMI that current > climate models do not factor in the role of methane release from > permafrost or clathrates at all, supposedly because the mechanisms of > release from permafrost and the seabed are poorly understood and > difficult to quantify and predict with any accuracy. > > Piper >
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