By Sia Aston
Kiwi scientists near Wellington have picked up on a rise in methane levels coming from the Southern Hemisphere.
It is troubling news not just for New Zealand but the world, though climate change sceptics remain unconcerned.
The southernmost tip of the North Island is the best place to measure clean, unadulterated Southern Hemisphere air and scientists have picked up a disturbing trend.
NIWA scientist Keith Lassey says new findings show a sudden jump in methane levels.
“The amount of methane in the atmosphere has started rising again after three or four, five years, about five years of relatively static levels in the atmosphere,” he says.
Scientists at the NIWA testing station down south say methane levels have experienced a 0.7 percent rise over the last two years.
The increase is 35 times more than all the methane produced by New Zealand cows in a year.
“Livestock account for one quarter of human-caused emissions and the rest of its shared between things like coal mining, gas mining, rice agriculture and burning rainforests,” says Mr Lassey.
The station at Baring Head is one of fewer than 50 measuring stations around the world; it takes in fresh air and calculates the amount of greenhouse gasses like CO2 or methane in the atmosphere.
Climate sceptics argue methane is simply a scientific scare story because it only stays in the atmosphere for around eight years and its influence is short-lived.
Mr Lassey says the problem with methane is its dramatic effect on global temperatures while it does remain in the air.
“In New Zealand, methane is 30 percent of our emission problem and we're really obligated to trying to look for ways in which we can reduce that,” he says.
The findings at the station are too late to provide further evidence to Copenhagen negotiators, who failed to come up with an agreement to combat climate change.
The rise is, however, likely to create ripples internationally.
NIWA scientists say the sharp rise in methane levels found in New Zealand are entirely consistent with what's being found at similar testing stations around the world.
NIWA say the findings clearly illustrate that climate issues continue, despite political negotiations at Copenhagen coming to a standstill.
3 News