Permafrost Releasing Greenhouse Gases as it Thaws(0:41)Top of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 1213, Segment 1
Nov 29, 2019 • 14m
Guest: Jordan Wilkerson, PhD Student in Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard
We’ve got a feedback loop going on in the Arctic where, as the atmosphere warms, the permanently frozen ground there is thawing. As it thaws, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (AKA laughing gas) escape into the atmosphere, where they cause further warming, which thaws more permafrost, which releases more greenhouse gas and round and round. Only now are researchers getting a grasp on how fast that cycle is going. An atmospheric chemistry lab at Harvard just published some data showing there’s a lot more nitrous oxide escaping the permafrost than previously thought.