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The irony of natural gas is that while it emits half the carbon of coal or gasoline per same amount of energy release, methane is 20 times amore potent greenhou

The irony of natural gas is that while it emits half the carbon of coal or gasoline per same amount of energy release, methane is 20 times amore potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So a 3% leakage pretty much erases its green house savings. No fuel company wants to leak and waste that much methane, but stopping leakage is not easy. One of the few facts the President got right is the US has reduced carbon emission more than any other country be converting from coal electricity to natural gas electricity. That is mainly because the US was highest or second highest carbon emitter for decades with any fractional decrease having impact. The decrease has pretty much stopped withcoal plant closures slowing. Environmentalist se natural gas as a transition phase to full renewables.

masklinn 7y ago
> methane is 20 times amore potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide The 100-year GWP of methane is ~30, but only because it has such a short atmospheric lifetime (~12 years). Over shorter terms its way worse, the 20-years GWP is >80.
- Retric 7y ago
  The other way of looking at this is how much Methane is removed from the atmosphere every year vs how much is added. In that context, many continuing sources of emissions have negligible net impact year to year. This is why Methane concentrations where basically flat from 1998 to 2008. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane Methane does however turn into CO2, but represents a small percentage of overall CO2 emissions.
  - aoeusnth1 7y ago
    No, that doesn’t seem like a useful way to look at it. The old methane break down into CO2 regardless of our current emissions. Our choices now affect future emissions of methane, the effects of which are essentially independent of the past methane release. Finding a consistent yardstick (methane = 30x CO2) seems better than pretending it’s not a problem just because there’s some delayed negative feedback loops already in play.
    - Retric 7y ago
      The issue is we already experience climate based on the current methane concentration. If the addition is exactly equal to the removal, we don’t get climate change from Methane.

masklinn 7y ago

> methane is 20 times amore potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide The 100-year GWP of methane is ~30, but only because it has such a short atmospheric lifetime (~12 years). Over shorter terms its way worse, the 20-years GWP is >80.

Retric 7y ago
The other way of looking at this is how much Methane is removed from the atmosphere every year vs how much is added. In that context, many continuing sources of emissions have negligible net impact year to year. This is why Methane concentrations where basically flat from 1998 to 2008. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane Methane does however turn into CO2, but represents a small percentage of overall CO2 emissions.
- aoeusnth1 7y ago
  No, that doesn’t seem like a useful way to look at it. The old methane break down into CO2 regardless of our current emissions. Our choices now affect future emissions of methane, the effects of which are essentially independent of the past methane release. Finding a consistent yardstick (methane = 30x CO2) seems better than pretending it’s not a problem just because there’s some delayed negative feedback loops already in play.
  - Retric 7y ago
    The issue is we already experience climate based on the current methane concentration. If the addition is exactly equal to the removal, we don’t get climate change from Methane.