Actually, I thought the methane that was going to kill us was the methane on the seabeds. I'm confused as to exactly which I should panic about first.
This is worthy of keeping an eye on, though at present it seems the amounts are relatively minor. Of interest is that the "Global Warming Potential" (GWP) of methane is around 23x CO2, though it is apparently relatively short-lived in the atmosphere. Thus reductions of methane could be an important part of the mix in reducing the overall prevalence of GHGs. The other top gases are shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Major_g...trends.png#file Fortunately, 3 of the 5 gases (including methane) are known to be flat or falling in concentration, with the exception of C02 and Nitrous Oxide (which incidentally is about 300x more potent than CO2 in terms of GWP).
As TimBikes has previously noted that while CH4 is 23x more dangerous from a GHG point of view, it does react with O2 to form CO2 + H2O in a fairly short time. The problem are these large stores of CH4 in the permafrost or as hydrates in the oceans. When these are released, they are liberated as pulses which have an immediate affect due to very large volumes involved.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TimBikes @ Sep 8 2006, 12:53 PM) [snapback]316415[/snapback]</div> ... good think it is not as common... or so I would hope!
Hi All, Just a comment. Methane is very reactive. If you have Natural Gas stove, that blue flame is Methane burning. Carbon Dioxide is extremely non-reactive. Once formed, it stays around for a LONG time. Try to cook your dinner with CO2 sometime?
