• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says July 4, 2022
‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation July 4, 2022
Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History July 4, 2022
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate & Society Methane

‘Dangerously Fast’ Methane Increase Suggests Feedback Mechanism May Have Begun

February 14, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes

2happy/StockVault

2happy/StockVault

72
SHARES
 

Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have risen at a “dangerously fast” rate and now exceed 1,900 parts per billion, prompting some researchers to warn that climate change itself may be driving the increase.

Atmospheric methane levels are now nearly triple pre-industrial levels, a news article in the journal Nature states, citing data released last month by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Scientists says the grim milestone underscores the importance of a pledge made at last year’s COP 26 climate summit to curb emissions of methane,” a climate pollutant that Nature cites as at least 28 times more potent than CO2, but is actually 80 to 85 times more damaging over the 20-year span when humanity will be scrambling to get the climate emergency under control.

While the research focused to some degree on methane released through microbial action, Nature says nearly two-thirds of the methane releases between 2007 and 2016 were caused by human activity.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest, landmark climate science assessment in August, researchers pointed to rapid, deep methane cuts as the single most important step in stemming the rise of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. In early November, scientists warned that the 30% reduction pledge at COP 26 fell short of what was needed.

The new research shows the problem getting worse.

“The growth of methane emissions slowed around the turn of the millennium, but began a rapid and mysterious uptick around 2007,” Nature writes. “The spike has caused many researchers to worry that global warming is creating a feedback mechanism that will cause ever more methane to be released, making it even harder to rein in rising temperatures.”

The report explains the analysis scientists conduct to attribute to accurately attribute methane emissions to different sources, from microbial activity to fossil fuel production. Xin Lan, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, said microbes account for 85% of the emissions increase since 2007, with the rest due to fossil fuel production.

“Is warming feeding the warming? It’s an incredibly important question,” said Royal Holloway, University of London Earth scientist Euan Nisbet. “As yet, no answer, but it very much looks that way.”

But “regardless of how this mystery plays out, humans are not off the hook,” Nature adds. “Based on their latest analysis of the isotopic trends, Lan’s team estimates that anthropogenic sources such as livestock, agricultural waste, landfill, and fossil fuel extraction accounted for about 62% of total methane emissions from 2007 to 2016.”

The Nature report last week landed just five days after new satellite imagery identified “ultra-emitters” in Turkmenistan, Russia, and the United States as the world’s biggest sources of methane leaks from oil and gas facilities, New Scientist reports. The next three biggest emitters were Iran, Algeria, and Kazakhstan.

“While huge plumes of methane leaking from gas pipelines have been detected by satellites at individual sites, such as a gas well in Ohio and several pipelines in central Turkmenistan, little has been know about their extent globally,” New Scientist explains. “Now, images captured by an instrument aboard a satellite have been run through an algorithm to automatically detect the biggest plumes of methane streaming from oil and gas facilities worldwide.”

The more than 25 tonnes of methane per hour coming from the ultra-emitters is “a heck of a lot”, U.S. Environmental Defense Fund Chief Scientist Steve Hamburg told New Scientist climate specialist Adam Vaughan.

“Collectively, these contribute about eight million tonnes of methane a year, about a tenth of the oil and gas industry’s total annual emissions for 2019-20,” Vaughan writes.



in Asia, COP Conferences, International Agencies & Studies, Methane, Oil & Gas, UK & Europe, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

United Nations
Air & Marine

Time Running Out, Canada Hanging Back on Emergency Plan to Avert $20B Oil Spill Disaster

July 7, 2022
1
Calgary Climate Hub
Cities & Communities

Calgary Adopts Net-Zero Climate Strategy, Ottawa Endorses Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

July 7, 2022
2
Staplegunther/Wikimedia Commons
UK & Europe

EU Adds Gas, Nuclear to Green Finance Taxonomy, Reversing Earlier Vote

July 7, 2022
2

Comments 2

  1. Kirk Norring says:
    5 months ago

    Are you ready for real summer heat?
    I hope you are. I don’t plan on staying here past this coming summer.
    For the record, Methane is 155-200 times more powerful in it’s first year in the atmosphere.

    Those lower values are the average over a hundred year span of time. It is very deceptive to be using those values.
    If you want to save lives then you may want to try being a little more honest by using data for the next few years.

    Reply
    • Mitchell Beer says:
      5 months ago

      Thanks, Kirk. We aren’t trying to mislead anyone — quite the contrary. We make clear in the story that the warming impact attributed to methane depends on time frame. This is the first time I’ve seen a number for the first-year impact, so thanks for that, and I’ll watch for it in our future sourcing. We generally try to emphasize the 20-year time span that will be decisive in getting climate change under control.

      But your timing with this comment is perfect. This morning Bloomberg Green ran an opinion/analysis piece on the 30-year-old practice of using a longer time frame to represent methane’s global warming potential. It’s worth a read: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-15/the-case-against-methane-emissions-keeps-getting-stronger

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Wikimedia Commons

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
135
Keith Weller/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Methane Plan Gives Big Ag a Free Pass

July 4, 2022
40
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
88
angela n./flickr

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
126
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
271
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

July 3, 2022
480

Recent Posts

United Nations

Time Running Out, Canada Hanging Back on Emergency Plan to Avert $20B Oil Spill Disaster

July 7, 2022
1
Calgary Climate Hub

Calgary Adopts Net-Zero Climate Strategy, Ottawa Endorses Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

July 7, 2022
2
Staplegunther/Wikimedia Commons

EU Adds Gas, Nuclear to Green Finance Taxonomy, Reversing Earlier Vote

July 7, 2022
2
Andrea Schaffer/wikimedia commons

Australia’s New Government Plans Legislated Emissions Cut, EV Incentives

July 7, 2022
1
NatureServe/Flickr

Nature Restoration Without Fossil Phaseout ‘Only Marginally’ Reduces Global Warming

July 7, 2022
1
skeeze / Pixabay

U.S. Looks to Other Options After Supreme Court Undercuts EPA Carbon Rules

July 7, 2022
1
Next Post
Friends of Europe/Flickr

Data Paywall Hinders Climate Studies, Researchers Warn IEA

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}