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>It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error
by miguelazo 3y ago
>It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it into power stations or homes and kitchens.
- jauntywundrkind 3y agoMethane/natural gas has terrifying potential. The impact is so big. On the plus side though, it only persists in the atmosphere for ~12 years, whereas co2 just hangs around indefinitely. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jan/16/greenhouse-gases-remain-air https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jan/16/greenhou...
- thfuran 3y agoDoesn't it mostly just get covered to CO2?
- wdh505 3y agoNatural gas has a much higher ability to trap heat than equivalent volume of co2. It eventually turns to co2 without burning after ~12 years
- miguelazo 3y agoYes, but does risking a tipping point within the next 12 years (22, by the time we move past it?) from the much higher near term impact seem like a good idea? I think the real point is to debunk natural gas as an acceptable energy source going forward. Obviously, it will take time to phase it out, but there are people out there making the argument that it's a good solution to the variability problem with renewables.
- the_third_wave 3y agoThe absorption bands for Methane [1] are mostly overlapped by those for water vapour of which there is a nearly limitless supply. Only the shortest wavelength band (~2.3 µm) does not have much overlap but this is also the one with the lowest absorption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_band#/media/File:Atmospheric_Transmission-en.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_band#/media/File:At...