Greenhouse gases are rising

We hear this repeated every day -- but is it true?

No ..not when it comes to methane.

Methane is meant to be one of the main culprits causing global warming. It has a warming potential of 21 times that of carbon dioxide.

Since 1999 methane levels have flat-lined and nobody really knows why. This CSIRO mp3 tries to explain, but you've got to worry when the behaviour of methane in the biosphere/atmosphere is so poorly understood and this plateauing was not predicted.

It begs the question ... How much reliance can we put on all the predictions of CO2 going through the roof, making the earth's thermostats go on the fritz, BBQ'd polar bears, and "Inconvenient Apocalypse Soon" re-runs coming from the eco-worriers lobby, Sir Nicholas Stern, Saint Albert Gore etc etc ??

Methane mystery solved (Audio): "Dr Paul Fraser discusses how CSIRO

scientists helped explain current atmospheric methane levels.
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Dr Paul Fraser from CSIRO discusses how a team of international scientists, including researchers from CSIRO, solved a problem that’s been puzzling them since 1999 − why recent atmospheric methane levels have remained stable, even though the sources of methane have increased.
Dr Fraser discusses in this five-minute interview how scientists used computer simulations to solve the mystery with their findings published in Nature magazine.
Read more about Explaining the methane mystery (Media release 28 Sep 06).
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