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Since methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas and has a much shorter half-life in the atmosphere compared to CO2, I wonder if it might actually save us. We
by jniedrauer 6y ago
Since methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas and has a much shorter half-life in the atmosphere compared to CO2, I wonder if it might actually save us. We could render the planet inhospitable early enough to be forced to address the problem without shackling future generations with the fallout like we are doing with CO2.
- dredmorbius 6y agoThat's ... not great ... but only viable if methane itself doesn't move the climate past a tipping point to runaway greenhouse effects. See "clathrate gun hypothesis", for example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
- neckardt 6y agoDo you know what the half life of methane in the atmosphere is? I did a search for it but couldn't find it.
- wahern 6y ago9.1 years according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane
- nvader 6y agoThat's funny. https://www.foodsource.org.uk/building-blocks/agricultural-methane-and-its-role-greenhouse-gas https://www.foodsource.org.uk/building-blocks/agricultural-m... claims > it is a relatively short-lived GHG, with emissions breaking down after an average of around 10 years. Looks like someone didn't understand what half-life means, or is being misleading.
- projektfu 6y agoOn average, a molecule of methane breaks down in less than 10 years. That is a true interpretation.
- 07t15 6y agoHalf life implies that one half of the mehane molecules decay in that period (or that a single one has a 50% of decaying).
- scaredginger 6y agoDepends on what 'average' you mean I guess. It is true for the median of course. However, if the time for an individual molecule to decay is exponentially distributed, you can solve for lambda to find its expected lifetime is 13.1 years. That being said, I'd say this is a less useful interpretation.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- AQuantized 6y agoWhen methane is oxidized it produces carbon dioxide
- Nasrudith 6y agoDoesn't it essentially decay to CO2 eventually anyway? In the long term barring it is equivalent to CO2 per carbon molecule. Granted there are Nth order effects of short term heating.
- imtringued 6y agoThat CO2 probably came from a cow eating grass so in theory it's not a long term problem either. In practice we are destroying ecosystems faster than they can recover.