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2 Gases Fuel Climate Fears

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Carbon dioxide isn't the only greenhouse gas that worries climate scientists. Airborne levels of two other potent gases - one from ancient plants, the other from flat-panel screen technology - are on the rise, too.

The gases are methane and nitrogen trifluoride. Both pale in comparison to the global warming effects of carbon dioxide, produced by the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. In the past couple of years, however, the two gases have been on the rise, according to two new studies. The increase is not accounted for in predictions for future global warming and comes as a nasty surprise to climate watchers.

Methane is by far the bigger worry. It is considered the No. 2 greenhouse gas based on the amount of warming it causes and the amount in the atmosphere. The total effect of methane on global warming is about one-third that of man-made carbon dioxide.

Thousands of years ago billions of tons of methane were created by decaying Arctic plants. It lies frozen in permafrost wetlands and trapped in the ocean floor. As the Arctic warms, the concern is this methane will be freed and worsen warming.

It's still early and the data are far from conclusive, but the amount of methane in the air jumped by nearly 28 million tons from June 2006 to October 2007.

"If it's sustained, it's bad news," said MIT atmospheric scientist Ron Prinn, lead author of the methane study.
Nitrogen trifluoride levels in the air have quadrupled in the last decade and increased 30-fold since 1978, said Ray Weiss, a geochemistry professor with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and lead author on a nitrogen trifluoride paper.

But nitrogen trifluoride is one of the more potent gases, thousands of times stronger at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

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