11–16 of 16 posts
> It is textbook knowledge that some bacteria can generate methane enzymatically Archea are not bacteria, so can bacteria actually produce methane or is the introduction wrong?
Kind of unexpected that this hasn't been looked at before esp. given that methane is a greenhouse gas. Didn't you kind of think that we already knew all about all sources of methane before pronouncements started being made about the 'dominant source of methane is cows' or some such. If it turns out humans are a significant contributor just by _being_, then human population growth becomes a consideration ... one that…
Kind of unexpected that this hasn't been looked at before esp. given that methane is a greenhouse gas. Didn't you kind of think that we already knew all about all sources of methane before pronouncements started being made about the 'dominant source of methane is cows' or some such. If it turns out humans are a significant contributor just by _being_, then human population growth becomes a consideration ... one that…
The reason it's no longer the hot topic is because industrialised nations' populations do not grow - as living standards increase, birth rates approach parity or slight shrinkage.
So the good news is that to control population growth we should do the thing that we should be doing anyway: get the whole world up to a sustainable high living standard.
Kind of unexpected that this hasn't been looked at before esp. given that methane is a greenhouse gas. Didn't you kind of think that we already knew all about all sources of methane before pronouncements started being made about the 'dominant source of methane is cows' or some such. If it turns out humans are a significant contributor just by _being_, then human population growth becomes a consideration ... one that…
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210805-the-search-for-t...
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
I think I read somewhere that if we simply composted near 100% of all compostable organic waste that it would reduce methane production by around 8-10% (from memory). So basically a trivial solution can't even be enacted by humans.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/first-you-see-it-t...
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Ex...
>Methane on Mars is expected to have a rather short lifetime – around 400 years – because it is broken down by ultraviolet light. Atmospheric mixing (for example, by winds) should quickly lead to a more or less uniform background concentration. But previous observations hint at seasonal variations in methane abundance, with concentrations varying with location and time. If this is correct, there must be an active source to replenish the supply and, at the same time, a relatively quick way of removing it in order to account for the apparent rise and fall in the measurements.