Alarming levels of methane in the atmosphere

Utsirahøyden, Nordsjøen .Oil drilling in the Edvard Grieg platform.Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

The levels of the greenhouse gas methane are increasing more than expected both at the weather stations in Svalbard and in southern Norway. – We are witnessing an alarming development, senior  scientist Cathrine Lund Myhre at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) says.

Meta levels shows a sharp increase from 2013 to 2014, and preliminary results from measurements in 2015 indicate a continued strong increase.
Myhre says that the levels of methane, which is the second most important greenhouse gas made by human activities after CO2, is the highest measured ever.
Compared with the average increase globally, the increase in the levels of methane is much larger at the Norwegian weather stations, the new report.
In addition to the record high levels of methane, which indicates a particularly large increase from 2013 to 2014, the measurements also records record high levels of CO2. But the increase in the levels of CO2 was, unlike the large increase in the levels of methane, expected.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today