Methane Spiking, Planet Boiling, Politicians Babbling
Atmospheric levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, are spiking, scientists report
Chris Mooney, December 11, 2016 (Washington Post)
“…[Carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, has] continued to accumulate in the atmosphere, but emissions haven’t gone up, even as economies have continued to grow…[But methane, the second most important greenhouse gas, is spiking, according to The growing role of methane in anthropogenic climate change…Methane reaches the atmosphere from a complex collection of human and natural sources…[Atmospheric concentrations] have grown from about 700 parts per billion in the preindustrial era to more than 1,840 parts per billion today. This suggests that much like with carbon dioxide, industrialization and modernization have had a long-term effect of unlocking large volumes of methane from the Earth…[M]olecule for molecule, methane packs a much stronger punch. Over a 100-year period, the emission of a given amount of methane is about 28 times as powerful when it comes to global warming as the emissions of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (even though the methane doesn’t stay around for that long of a time period)…[T]here may be some growth in methane emissions from global oil and gas…[but the agricultural sector is] a more likely cause of the growth…” click here for more
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