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Global warming from ancient plants

Global warming from ancient plantsWhile the impact of carbon dioxide is well documented, scientists are monitoring the airborne levels of two other gases. These are methane and nitrogen trifluoride which have seen a recent increase in the atmosphere and both contribute to global warming.

Methane poses the greater danger. It comes from landfills, natural gas, coal mining, animal waste and decaying plants. It is the latter which is of great concern to scientists as thousands of years ago billions of tons of methane were produced by decaying arctic plants. These lie trapped in the ocean floor and as the artic warms may well be released into the atmosphere.

We may well be seeing just this occurring at present. Monitors placed near remote coastal cliffs suddenly indicated an increase of methane levels in 2006. From June 2006 to October 2007 the amount of methane in the air increased by almost 28 million tons. There is now upwards of 5,6 billion tons of methane in the air.

This increase was not accounted for in predictions for global warming. While the data is not conclusive, scientists are concerned that this could be due to the methane being released from the artic ocean floor.

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