Reply To: Climate Crisis: Our Last Chance
Its difficult and disconcerting to accept that the experts can be very baffled, Dave.
“I don’t want to run around and cry wolf all the time, but it is something that is very, very worrying,” said Euan Nisbet, an Earth scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, and lead author of a recent study reporting that the growth of atmospheric methane is accelerating.
“The hope was that methane would be starting on its trajectory downwards now,” said Matt Rigby, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Bristol in England. “But we’ve seen quite the opposite: It’s been growing steadily for over a decade.”
That growth accelerated in 2014, pushing methane levels up beyond 1,850 ppb. Experts have no idea why. “It’s just such a confusing picture,” Rigby said. “Everyone’s puzzled. We’re just puzzled.”
Debra Wunch, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Toronto said “We could actually reduce the amount of methane in the atmosphere on timescales that are relevant to the problem we are facing right now.”
But the big question is as always – will that actually happen, will resources be mobilized. It is not a scientific question but an economic-political one. As we have seen too often reassuring statements are made and politicians tell us not to worry, not to panic. The striking school students I think are right…it has become an emergency and it is time to make it a top priority.