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Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

reuters.com

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Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#11

Post by aldoushuxley001 »

rohan1024 wrote: post #10

There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…

We should act on the insect apocalypse and do things like ban neonicinoids, etc. But connecting this to climate change is an extreme stretch considering species decline has been happening for a long time before the industrial revolution. It’s simply not attributable to CO2 and greenhouse gasses

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#12

Post by mrfusion »

ijpoijpoihpiuoh wrote: post #5
mrfusion wrote: post #2

(Disclaimer I believe in climate change with all my heart) If methane levels are higher than we thought wouldn’t that make our climate models wrong? Ie less of a heating effect from co2?

It would mean that a lower fraction of the heating effect we're observing is from CO2. However, if we've correctly estimated the impact of CO2, then that just means that there will be more absolute heating than we had otherwise predicted.

We’re both on the same side and I don’t want to seem like arguing within the team. But those two sentences seem to be contradictory?

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#13

Post by british_india »

There is no mystery.

Arctic sea floor

Canadian permafrost

Siberian permafrost

The Arctic sea floor is releasing Methane Clathrates, i.e. the so-called Methane Clathrates Gun is firing. As for the two instances of "permafrost", both are melting en mass and that is leading to organic matter that has been frozen and accumulating for millenia to now be decomposed by bacteria, leading to massive methane releases.

Methane is 30-times for damaging than CO2.

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#16

Post by guerrilla »

aldoushuxley001 wrote: post #11
rohan1024 wrote: post #10

There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…

We should act on the insect apocalypse and do things like ban neonicinoids, etc. But connecting this to climate change is an extreme stretch considering species decline has been happening for a long time before the industrial revolution. It’s simply not attributable to CO2 and greenhouse gasses

Thinking that changing the climate to which animals are specifically adapted to and on which they exclusively sustain themselves is likely a major contributing cause to their death is not really "stretching." It may not be the exclusive cause or a cause at all but its hardly anything but a prime suspect.

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#17

Post by caconym_ »

rohan1024 wrote: post #10

There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…

> Do we need more evidence to act? What are we waiting for?

We're waiting for a reversal in the apparent worldwide collapse of liberal democracy, I guess.

Probably climate change and said collapse will feed into each other. The way most oligarchs and their toadies are wired, I think they're more likely to look to pull the ripcord for themselves rather than spend big on best-effort change for everyone else. Dismantling democracies like America must be a central pillar of their strategy for consolidating power.

Incidentally, right now the single person most standing in the way of positive change (and he has even been dismantling previous progress) is a comically narcissistic, borderline illiterate fraud artist who'll most likely be dead before the shit hits the fan even according to the most alarming predictions. I don't mean to say he's fully responsible (far from it), but that's a good proxy for where we're at.

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#18

Post by JulianMorrison »

aldoushuxley001 wrote: post #11
rohan1024 wrote: post #10

There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…

We should act on the insect apocalypse and do things like ban neonicinoids, etc. But connecting this to climate change is an extreme stretch considering species decline has been happening for a long time before the industrial revolution. It’s simply not attributable to CO2 and greenhouse gasses

The connection is the disrespectful, undignified, instrumental way that humans treat everything else, animate and not, and with little concern about how their own fortunes are unalterably stitched into the life web they are busily tearing apart.

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#19

Post by MiroF »

caconym_ wrote: post #17
rohan1024 wrote: post #10

There's already a news on front page at the moment which says bird population is declining in North America. The comments section mention that it's not just North America but also Britain, France and also that it could be due to declining insect population. We rarely get this kind of data from developing countries, which means these studies are rarely or not at all performed simply because they don't have resources t…

> Do we need more evidence to act? What are we waiting for? We're waiting for a reversal in the apparent worldwide collapse of liberal democracy, I guess. Probably climate change and said collapse will feed into each other. The way most oligarchs and their toadies are wired, I think they're more likely to look to pull the ripcord for themselves rather than spend big on best-effort change for everyone else. Dismantlin…

Your mistake is assuming that democratic consensus will spur the kind of action we really need.

Once voters realize that this would take personal cost for benefits they won't see in their lifetime, I can't see them willfully voting for any substantial reversal.

Re: Researchers are racing to find out why methane levels are increasing so fast

#20

Post by MiroF »

mrfusion wrote: post #2

(Disclaimer I believe in climate change with all my heart) If methane levels are higher than we thought wouldn’t that make our climate models wrong? Ie less of a heating effect from co2?

there's a climate lag. also, methane isn't higher than we thought, it's just higher than we'd expect given what we know about energy production, so there's some hidden source somewhere.
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