evidence: Nord Stream pipeline leaks are ‘catastrophic for the climate’ [...] Methane leaking from yet-to-be explained damage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines is likely to be the biggest burst of the potent greenhouse gas on record, raising new fears of the effect on the climate emergency. The Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany on Thursday was pumping huge volumes of methane into the Baltic Sea as well as the atmosphere – as much as five times more than escaped in the Aliso Canyon disaster – the largest known terrestrial release of methane in US history.