WELLINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand scientists have found humans are putting more methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere through fossil fuel emissions than previously thought, which could alter how countries tackle global warming.
Using ice cores from Antarctica's Taylor Glacier, an international team of researchers - including New Zealand and Australian scientists - measured natural rates of methane in the atmosphere over the last 11,000 years during a six-year research, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature on Thursday.
The research challenges conventional thinking about the amount of methane seeping out naturally from oil and gas fields.
The team found evidence that this is a fraction of what had previously been thought.
Consequently, the team concludes, methane emissions from industrial fossil fuel use and extraction are far greater than realized.
It had been thought that global warming would trigger natural methane emissions, but the researchers found no sign of increased emissions at the end of the last ice age, and say they are hopeful that large future emissions of methane are unlikely to occur.
