What is the effect of methane?
This hole 30 meters diameter and 70 meters deep was discovered in July 2014 in Siberia. According to the scientists, it was probably the result of a methane explosion, due to the soil unfreezing, a result of global warming.
This means that the stocks of methane contained in the frozen soil of Sibera are being released into the atmosphere, which will reinforce the speed of global warming, especially as methane is a gas with a stronger greenhouse effect than CO2.
This effect is mentionned in the IPCC report (E.7), which estimates the quantity of methane released between 50 et 250 Gigatonnes of carbon, but with a low confidance (so it could be more). This volume of gas should be deduced from the quantity of greenhouse gases that we can still emit without going over our chosen global warming goal.
