Sources and Sinks of Methane.Future Concentrations and Impact on Global Warming.

There has been an average increase in the surface temperature of the earth by 0.6 ± 0.2ºC over the 20th century (IPCC, 2001). This increase in the surface temperature of the earth is attributed to the increase in the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, responsible for trapping outgoing heat radiation. Industrialization and the increase in anthropogenic activities are the causes of increase of these gases.Methane (CH4) is the most important greenhouse gas after Carbon Dioxide (CO2).The increase in atmospheric CO2 can be attributed due to increase in the use of fossil fuels over the last 150 years. Methane, whose atmospheric concentrations are now nearly 2.5 times of what they were in pre-industrial times, has a variety of anthropogenic and natural sources.This work is an effort to document the anthropogenic sources of methane since 1960, namely, methane emissions form the use of fossil fuel, rice agriculture, domestic ruminants, biomass burning and waste disposal and handling. A model was created using the sources and sinks of methane and was used to predict the future concentrations of methane up to 2025 considering the atmosphere as a semi-batch reactor. Finally, this predicted concentration of methane was used to determine the surface temperature increase caused due to increase in the atmospheric methane concentrations