I mean, anyone who was convinced otherwise was delusional. We’ve always known that methane has a substantially higher short-term impact on GHG emissions than carbon dioxide. We’ve also known for years now that natural gas is notorious for leaking obscene amounts of methane (even compared to coal mining per unit energy). That hasn’t stopped us from tapping and consuming more gas: in fact, total US fossil fuel electricity production has increased by 40% over the plateau in the 1970s-2000s.
In the short-term, we are incredibly, incredibly fucked. Eventually, methane decays and whatnot, but that might be too little, too late.
More methane release overwhelms the natural breakdown agents in the atmosphere (hydroxyl radicals) so an increase bumps up the decay half life average and overall greenhouse gas effectiveness. We know there’s more methane leaks now due to both manmade sources as well as natural feedback loops from warming. Yet the IPCC still uses the older half life numbers for methane even now.
I mean, anyone who was convinced otherwise was delusional. We’ve always known that methane has a substantially higher short-term impact on GHG emissions than carbon dioxide. We’ve also known for years now that natural gas is notorious for leaking obscene amounts of methane (even compared to coal mining per unit energy). That hasn’t stopped us from tapping and consuming more gas: in fact, total US fossil fuel electricity production has increased by 40% over the plateau in the 1970s-2000s.
In the short-term, we are incredibly, incredibly fucked. Eventually, methane decays and whatnot, but that might be too little, too late.
More methane release overwhelms the natural breakdown agents in the atmosphere (hydroxyl radicals) so an increase bumps up the decay half life average and overall greenhouse gas effectiveness. We know there’s more methane leaks now due to both manmade sources as well as natural feedback loops from warming. Yet the IPCC still uses the older half life numbers for methane even now.