As a fourth leak has been reportedly found on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, climate scientists have warned the unexplained natural gas leaks will have a “significant” environmental effect, estimating up to half a million metric tons of methane has been released into the sea. Methane makes up the majority of natural gas flows, and given its potency as a greenhouse gas, the leaks –– whether deliberate or not –– have been branded a “tragedy and very perplexing” situation by climate experts.
Experts say the leaks will add short term impact to greenhouse gas emissions but the effects to marine life should be “minimal.” “This is indeed a tragedy and very perplexing. The natural gas that is escaping will contribute to short-term greenhouse gas emissions, but this is hard to quantify unless we know the volumes in the pipeline, and gas flow should have been turned off,” Grant Wach, professor of geoscience at Dalhousie University in Canada, told MarketWatch. Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson and retired chemical oceanographer David Hastings have estimated roughly half a million metric tons of methane was released from 778 million cubic meters of gas, calculated using official worst case scenario estimates provided by the Danish government. For reference, th …