Evidence for one of the long-feared feedback loops caused by global warming and the burning of fossil fuels is starting to appear in Siberia and nearby seas. Scientists worry that this may be the start of runaway climate destabilization.
Seen by a team of international scientists led by Professor Örjan Gustafsson from Stockholm University travelling in the Eastern Siberian Arctic Ocean, the release of methane has long been feared by climatologists who suggest that a warming planet could trigger a mass melting of what are called methane hydrates—a frozen form of potent greenhouse gas methane trapped in permafrost or beneath the ocean floor.