methane

New ways to suck up methane can buy us vital time in the climate fight

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Remove a billion tonnes of methane from the air and we could cool Earth by 0.2°C, extending the window of opportunity to remove carbon dioxide before it is too late Technology 2 March 2022 By Katharine Sanderson Graham Carter The warming of our planet is usually blamed on carbon dioxide, but there is another major … Read more

Methane Emissions from Energy Production Are Massively Undercounted

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Governments across the world are massively undercounting the amount of methane that energy production is releasing into the environment, according to a report this morning from the International Energy Agency. The agency’s annual Global Methane Tracker said emissions from the energy sector are about 70 percent greater than the amount national governments have officially reported. … Read more

Massive methane leaks mapped from space

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Using satellite data, researchers have mapped massive plumes of methane released by human activities. Those satellite images revealed that plumes of methane emitted by oil and gas facilities during leaks or maintenance operations made up about 8% to 12% of all oil and gas methane emissions, according to a new study.  “This work confirms what … Read more

Methane pollution: Russia and US top list of ultra-emitters in the gas and oil industry

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Images captured by satellite have been run through an algorithm to automatically detect the biggest plumes of methane streaming from oil and gas facilities worldwide Environment 3 February 2022 By Adam Vaughan Example of a methane plume detected over the United States in satellite images from 2019 Kayrros, Inc.; Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, … Read more

Uranus And Neptune Aren’t The Same Color. A New Study Could Finally Explain Why

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Uranus and Neptune are the most twin-like of all the planets in the Solar System. They are almost the same size and mass, have similar compositions and structures, even similar rotation rates.   Which makes one glaring difference quite perplexing. Neptune is a fetching shade of azure, with visible swirling storms. Uranus is more of … Read more

Methane Pollution Just Reached New Heights, And The Sources May Not Be What You Think

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Methane recently reached 1,900 parts per billion (ppb) of Earth’s atmosphere according to measurements taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. This compares with about 700 ppb before the industrial revolution.   Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, but lasts around nine years in the air. Including the knock-on effects … Read more

Gas Stoves Leak More Methane than Previously Thought

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A new study is reporting a larger climate impact from gas stoves than previously thought, stoking a debate about one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: buildings. Published by a team of four Stanford University Earth-system scientists today in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology, the study concluded that U.S. gas stoves could … Read more

‘Killer Lake’ in Africa Looks Like Paradise, But It’s Hiding a Deadly Secret

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The engineers aboard the floating power station on Lake Kivu could only watch nervously as the volcano in the distance erupted violently, sending tremors rumbling through the water beneath them.   It was not the lava shooting from Mount Nyiragongo last May that spooked them, but the enormous concentrations of potentially explosive gases within Kivu, … Read more

To Fully Mitigate Climate Change, We Need to Curb Methane Emissions

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It’s been more than two months since the House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act—a bill that would make desperately needed and decades-overdue strides toward the U.S. meeting its moral responsibility to combat the climate crisis. But instead of moving into a new year on the hope that would come with the Senate … Read more

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange

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As it’s the foundation for all life on Earth, discovering carbon on other planets always gets scientists excited – and the Curiosity Rover on Mars has found an unusual mix of the chemical element that could hypothetically point to the existence of alien life.   That’s by no means certain, but it’s a possibility. It’s … Read more