Low Hanging Fruit?
It is possible that a focus on controlling methane emissions would have the quickest payback on reducing global warming and triggering new tipping points driven by warming. The fact that methane persists in the atmosphere for ten years, a relatively short time, is encouraging. Methane is also a good place to focus some effort because it is a much more potent heat-trapping gas than CO2.
Now, add in the fact that methane can be burned, it is a fuel. Connect the dots folks.
Curbing Climate Change by Sealing Gas Leaks
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To the naked eye, there was nothing to be seen at a natural gas well in eastern Texas but beige pipes and tanks baking in the sun. |
But in the viewfinder of Terry Gosney’s infrared camera, three black plumes of gas gushed through leaks that were otherwise invisible. |
Unlike carbon dioxide, which can remain in the atmosphere a century or more once released, methane persists in the air for about 10 years. So aggressively reining in emissions now would mean that far less of the gas would be warming the earth in a decade or so. |
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