Methane levels spoil warming calcs

An article in American Scientist magazine looks at the unexplained levelling of
methane concentrations in the atmosphere. N.B.: IPCC models are predicated on
continued increase in methane concentrations. Here's a snippet:

...methane (CH4) produces a climate forcing that is more than a third of that
produced by carbon dioxide. The concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere have both risen dramatically since the start of the industrial
revolution, but unlike its more familiar greenhouse-gas cousin, atmospheric
methane has recently stopped increasing in abundance.

This happy development wasn't entirely unanticipated, given that the rate of increase has been slowing for at least a quarter-century. Yet the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicated many of its
conclusions on scenarios in which methane concentrations would continue growing
for decades to come...

LINK: That other greenhouse gas - David Schneider, American Scientist

RELATED: Global warming, Science