CO2 vs. methane: Which is the scarier greenhouse gas and why?

David Archer has been a professor in the Department of The Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago since 1993. He is a computational ocean chemist who has worked on a wide range of topics pertaining to the global carbon cycle and its relation to global climate. He has published research on the carbon cycle of the ocean and the sea floor, at present, in the past, and in the future. Dr. Archer has worked on the ongoing mystery of the low atmospheric CO2 concentration during glacial time 20,000 years ago, and on the fate of fossil fuel CO2 on geologic time scales in the future, and its impact on future ice age cycles, ocean methane hydrate decomposition, and coral reefs. Archer has written a textbook for non-science major undergraduates called “Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast”, and a popular-level book on the longevity of climate impacts from CO2 release called “The Long Thaw: How humans are changing the next 100,000 years of Earth’s climate.”