More Methane Nonsense
I came across this Science Alert article a few days ago, with the headline ‘World’s Biggest Energy Agency Warns 1 Fossil Fuel Must Be Cut Immediately‘
It is not a lengthy article, so I reproduce it in full.
Methane emissions from fossil fuels must be slashed immediately to limit climate warming, and major reductions are possible with existing technologies at low cost, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.
Methane is far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but is responsible for around 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date.
It lingers in the atmosphere for only around a decade, but absorbs energy much more quickly than carbon dioxide, and cutting emissions of the greenhouse gas is seen as a quick way to limit global warming in the short term, and rapidly improve air quality.
The energy sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of the methane produced by human activity, but it has made little progress on curbing emissions.
“Immediate reductions in methane emissions are needed to limit warming to 1.5 Celcius,” the IEA said.
“Without targeted action on methane, even with deep reductions in fossil fuel use, the increase in the global average surface temperature will likely exceed 1.6C by 2050,” it added in a new report.
The agency said 75 percent of methane emissions from oil and gas operations, and half of that produced by coal, could be abated with existing technology.
And the cost of using all existing mitigation strategies in the oil and gas sector through 2030 amounts to “less than two percent of the net income earned by this industry in 2022,” the IEA added.
Methane emissions are expected to fall if the world proceeds towards its stated net-zero goals, but even achieving those – which remains highly uncertain – would not be enough to achieve the necessary methane emission reductions, the report warns.
“Additional, targeted actions to tackle methane emissions from fossil fuel production and use are essential to limit the risk of crossing irreversible climate tipping points,” it said.
The benefits of doing so would extend beyond reigning in climate change, including preventing nearly a million premature deaths due to ozone exposure and the loss of 90 million tonnes of crops by 2050, the IEA added.
The trend is not positive, however.
The IEA’s most recent global methane tracker estimated the energy sector produced 135 million tonnes of methane emissions in 2022, a slight rise from the year before.
Most of that comes from coal, oil and natural gas operations, with smaller amounts from leaks in end-use equipment and incomplete combustion of biofuels.
I’m not sure I would use the word ‘abundant’ when discussing methane. It is present in minute quantities; 0.00017 percent of the atmosphere.
Even if methane did ‘absorb’ energy far more quickly than CO2, there is over a hundred times less of it in the atmosphere.
Irreversible tipping points eh? There are no such things.
A warmer world will not produce less food, just the opposite in fact, as we have seen many times before with record crop yields being reported year after year.
135 million tons a year pales into insignificance compared to carbon dioxide at around 40 billion tons a year, which itself pales into insignificance compared to natural processes adding 920 billion tons a year.
The best way to reduce methane emissions is to drastically cut the number of cows. This will of course reduce the food supply, which is the whole idea, to weaken the population.
PSI’s position is that there is but one ‘greenhouse gas’; water vapour.
Once again, we see facts distorted to promote the climate scam, and the so-called ‘fact checkers’ are conspicuous in their absence.
See the article here sciencealert.com
About the author: Andy Rowlands is a university graduate in space science and British Principia Scientific International researcher, writer, and editor who co-edited the new climate science book, ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘
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Herb Rose
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Hi Andy,
In the troposphere the exchange of energy between molecules by radiation is insignificant. At the Earth’s surface 99.6% of the exchange of energy is by convection and only .4% by radiation. The two methods of transferring energy only become equal at an altitude of 250,000 ft, in the thermosphere. In collisions it is only the mass of the objet that matters not any of its other properties. A methane molecule with a mass of 16 will absorb half as much energy as an O2 molecules. The loss of energy by radiation into space occurs where the atmosphere contains no CO2, H2O, or CH4.
The podcast by Tom Shula about the Pineti gauge shows there is absolutely nothing in the GHGT that is connected to reality.
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Charles Higley
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Since methane is at 1/400th of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and supposedly 20-times the green house gas effect, it would be 5% (1/20th) of any warming. 30% is gross BS.
Furthermore, its half-life is only about 5 years or less, just like that of CO2. Longer claimed half-lives are lies.
Lastly, no gas in the upper troposphere can warm Earth’s surface as it is ALWAYS colder (-17 deg C) than the surface (15 deg C). A cold object cannot warm a hot object. Simple thermodynamics.
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