Methane is the worst climate change foe…get the details
Tuesday, 17th August 2021
A recent report from the IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on climate change)stated that greenhouse gases are the key cause of global climatic changes that may turn out to be irreversible in the near future. Among those deadly greenhouse gases, methane gas is of the worst kind with about 60 percent of the gas being released from human sources only.
Researchers have stated that if the emission of the methane gas drops, the atmospheric concentration of this gas could also drop within a time period of 10 years only. This could influence the climatic changes in a bigger way and bring down the world temperature change under 2 degrees centigrade. It was further stated by the IPCC that sustained mitigation of the methane gas could lead to a drop in surface temperatures in the long run.
As per recent research conducted by NASA, about a quarter of the methane emissions sprung from the agricultural domain, primarily from the raising of livestock. In the midst of the other sources, fossil fuel combustion and landfill-related decomposition also lead to atmospheric methane concentration thereby causing the global temperature to shoot up.
In its research related to climate change, the IPCC has held the methane gas responsible for many decades. In its assessment of 2007, the panel had referred to methane gas as an unequivocal trigger for global warming.
"It is unequivocal that the increase of CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere."
The report of 2021 from the IPCC observed that sustained mitigation of methane could support the reduction of surface temperatures of the world in the long run. "Sustained methane mitigation reduces global surface ozone, contributing to air quality improvements and also reduces the surface temperature in the longer term, but only sustained CO2 emission reductions allow long-term climate stabilization," the report stated.
While the human sources make the methane emissions’ core, other factors too come into play. “The greatest natural source of methane is wetlands, which contribute 30 percent of global methane emissions. Other natural sources of methane emissions include the oceans, termites, permafrost, vegetation, and wildfires," Nasa stated
The News Talkie Bureau
Source:
Indiatoday