Methane Release
Amplifying Short Term Pain
Steadily and incrementally, heat is building in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Our atmosphere is like a warm duvet wrapped around a sparkling blue gem, hanging in the cold darkness of space. In this duvet, the feathers are greenhouse gas molecules, trapping and retaining heat and keeping the planet warm. We tend to focus on carbon dioxide (CO2) as the primary agent of global warming, but methane (CH4) is also a significant player on the climate change stage. Methane is colorless, odorless, and invisible to the naked eye, but it is a super greenhouse gas.
Understanding its significance requires some knowledge of why it forms such a potent component of warming. Its most notable characteristic is its ability to absorb heat. Over short periods of a decade or two, methane’s warming potential is 87 times greater than CO2. Because methane’s lifespan in the atmosphere is short (about 12 years), its long-term heating potential over a century is lower at approximately 28 times that of CO2.
So, methane released today has a significant impact on meeting our temperature limiting goals over the next 30 to 40 years. Currently, methane constitutes about 10 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. However, about 25 percent of climate warming is estimated by the United Nations to come from methane released by human activity.
