Hear and see the methane gas peeking out of the permafrost

Katey Walter is a Doctor of Ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is conducting an experiment which you can see in the clip above. In the permafrost you can distinguish white pockets with gas and by punching them and lighting fire she shows that they contain methane.

- When the ice melts, the gases are released into the atmosphere. The flames demonstrate that the bubbles contain methane. It is a very potent greenhouse gas, says Katey Walter in the documentary David Attenborough: The Climate Crisis.

According to Mark Maslin, professor and climate scientist at University College London, methane is 21 times stronger as greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

- One can imagine that a large amount of gas peeping out of the permafrost can greatly accelerate the global warming we see today, he says in the documentary.

Studies have shown that methane and carbon dioxide are released when the soil becomes warmer. Methane is also released from the seabed. But how great the emissions are, how fast it goes and what it means for the climate is still uncertain.

- If you look at the over millions of lakes in the Arctic, you start to think about how much methane all of them could release, says Katey Walter.

See more about methane and other factors of climate change in David Attenborough: The Climate Crisis on SVT Play. More documentaries from SVT's climate initiative The planet's future can also be seen on SVT Play.