It’s probably not the words you want to hear from a leading figure on climate change.
But Jason Box, a professor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland reckons, “We’re f**ked”.
He made the remarks on his twitter account after a team of scientists made an alarming discovery.
It appears that huge quantities of methane gas are leaking from the sea floor under the arctic and rising into the atmosphere.
Methane is one of the most dangerous greenhouse gasses as it traps far more heat than other gases, such as carbon dioxide.
And this increased temperature is helping to warm up parts of the Earth at an alarming rate.
Box told website Motherboard, “Even if a small fraction of the Arctic carbon were released to the atmosphere, we’re f**ked.”
“Methane is more than 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping infrared as part of the natural greenhouse effect.”
“Methane getting to the surface—that’s potent stuff.”
“The conventional thought is that the bubbles would be dissolved before they reached the surface.
“But if the plumes are making it to the surface, that’s a brand new source of heat-trapping gases that we need to worry about.”
What makes this news even more concerning is that the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on earth.
And, as the ocean gets hotter, more methane gets pumped into the atmosphere.
It’s all happening fast and Box thinks things could change very rapidly, “I may escape a lot of this, but my daughter might not. She’s 3 years old.”
This news comes as giant sinkholes discovered in Siberia have been linked to changing temperatures on the planet.
The holes are forming as long-frozen permafrost thaws due to increased heat, the earth around it then collapses.
And given the right conditions, some scientists are concerned that something similar could happen in other places around the globe.
Carolyn Ruppel, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gas Hydrates Project, told NBC News, “Global warming is happening, and it’s exacerbated in the Arctic.
“And if these craters are related to permafrost thaw, it’s a very visible effect of what’s happening to the Earth.”
Source: dailystar.co.uk