Thursday 25 November 2010

Oh noes! We are going to be farted to death!

The story was featured on Radio 4 this morning, but I can't find on the BBC website yet, so this write up will have to do:

The UN's weather agency has used the press release announcing its annual report on greenhouse gas levels to raise the spectre of rising temperatures triggering the rapid release of methane, a powerful warming gas, that could accelerate climate change. The announcement comes on the eve of the The United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010.

The WMO's 2009 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin report is published today (24 November).

The report highlights that methane levels have been rising since 2007 but cautions that the cause of this increase is not known. "The reasons for renewed growth of atmospheric methane are not fully understood, but emissions from natural sources (from northern latitudes and the tropics) are considered potential causes," the report states.

Typically around two thirds of methane comes from direct human emissions and the balance from natural sources such as permafrost. Large quantities of methane are locked away in permafrost which could be released as it melts. Methane is thought to contribute around one fifth of the greenhouse gas warming effect...


And so on an so forth, you get the gist.

4 comments:

Ross said...

This is just another form of violence by cows against people.

Mark Wadsworth said...

R, indeed. They only manage to kill a few dozen people a year using violence, so we're winning the numbers game because we eat millions of them (except in India, of course), so now it's over to Plan B.

Pogo said...

I was under the impression that termite farts caused rather a lot of methane - some 15%+ of natural production...

Bayard said...

Typically around two thirds of methane comes from direct human emissions

My God we are a flatulent lot, or does that include domestic animals?