A worrying trend is that of permafrost thaw in the Arctic circle, where frozen organic matter gets exposed to heat, helping bacteria degrade nearly 12,000 years worth of dead plants and animals.
A more reassuring point is that methane’s presence in our atmosphere if far shorter-lived than that of CO2 (12 to 15 years and 20-200 years respectively). However, methane is naturally degraded to water and CO2 by chemical reactions, thus leaving greenhouse gas behind either way. Moreover, the chemicals that degrade it in the atmosphere are running out as the exponential growth of methane is overreacting with them. This means that it could linger longer than it used to in the future.
