Live data from Hacker News

Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

nature.com

1–10 of 164 posts

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#4
post #3
post #2

Quoted post unavailable.

Pretty much. We're definitely gonna fail to do anything significant about any of this crap until it forcibly ends the way everyone actually lives their lives.

It’s time to mandate a law that requires people in power to take a heroic dose of mushrooms twice a year

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#6
post #5

Genuinely curious - while Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas, isn’t its half life in the atmosphere only 9 years? Wouldn’t this make it far less concerning than CO2 with its half life of 120 years? Looking for serious answers.

Methane has ~25 times the global warming effect as an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

Source: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warmin...

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#7
post #6
post #5

Genuinely curious - while Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas, isn’t its half life in the atmosphere only 9 years? Wouldn’t this make it far less concerning than CO2 with its half life of 120 years? Looking for serious answers.

Methane has ~25 times the global warming effect as an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Source: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warmin...

So methane should be 25 / (120 / 9) = 1.875 times as harmful as CO2 in the long run? How much does the long run matter in this case?

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#8
post #5

Genuinely curious - while Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas, isn’t its half life in the atmosphere only 9 years? Wouldn’t this make it far less concerning than CO2 with its half life of 120 years? Looking for serious answers.

The concern is faster warming and an out of control positive feedback loop.

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#9
post #5

Genuinely curious - while Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas, isn’t its half life in the atmosphere only 9 years? Wouldn’t this make it far less concerning than CO2 with its half life of 120 years? Looking for serious answers.

Carbon emissions are correlated to human activity. We can dial them up or down theoretically through human action.

Methane emission through permafrost (both land and submarine) could end up as a cascading natural emission that forms a feedback loop.

I think that's a big part of why people are panicking.

Re: Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

#10
Based on the past two years, good luck with that.

Wonder how much damage the billions of gallons of off gassing is costing the country and world from the Bakken fracking fields (North Dakota, eastern Montana)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/at-night-giant-fie...

Post reply on HN