Fresh U.S. government dataScientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the rapid rise in atmospheric methane levels in recent years. This is due to the fact that human-caused climate crises have triggered a vicious feedback loop that could lead to unstoppable global warming.
Research published in January by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed that atmospheric concentrations of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period — soared past 1,900 parts per billion in 2021, which ranked as the fourth-warmest Year on record.
As Nature reported Tuesday, “The growth of methane emissions slowed around the turn of the millennium, but began a rapid and mysterious uptick around 2007.”
“The spike has caused many researchers to worry that global warming is creating a feedback mechanism that will cause ever more methane to be released, making it even harder to rein in rising temperatures,” the outlet noted. “Potential explanations [for the methane surge] range from the expanding exploitation of oil and natural gas and rising emissions from landfill to growing livestock herds and increasing activity by microbes in wetlands.”
Euan Nisbet, an Earth scientist from Royal Holloway University of London, shared his story Nature that “methane levels are growing dangerously fast” as powerful countries around the world refuse to end the extraction of coal, natural gas, and other sources of the pollutant.
“Is warming feeding the warming? It’s an incredibly important question,” said Nisbet. “As yet, no answer, but it very much looks that way.”
“Warming feeding the warming”: Methane concentrations in the atmosphere raced past 1,900 parts per billion last year, nearly triple preindustrial levels
I’ll just let this sit therehttps://t.co/h8SNausCc3 #climate pic.twitter.com/n6gtTnmoCN
— Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) February 8, 2022
Scientists have long feared that the continued burning of fossil fuels risks setting in motion a chain reaction whose consequences — particularly ever-more global warming — are irreversible.
Scientists have figured out the cause of the alarming increase in atmospheric methane levels over the past few years. However, researchers continue to struggle to find the exact extent to which human activity was responsible. previously warned against categorizing certain causes of methane emissions — such as thawing permafrost — as “natural,” given that they are typically a result of human-driven warming.
“Regardless of how this mystery plays out, humans are not off the hook,” Nature Tuesday was stressed. “Based on their latest analysis of the isotopic trends, [NOAA scientist Xin Lan’s] team estimates that anthropogenic sources such as livestock, agricultural waste, landfill, and fossil-fuel extraction accounted for about 62% of total methane emissions since from 2007 to 2016.”
Here’s the annualized graph of methane, which shows the amount of methane that has entered the atmosphere in the past 12 months. The new record for methane in the atmosphere broke again with 158.2 ppb in the past 12 months.
Very bad news indeed for humanity and the planet. pic.twitter.com/v9VIH5FG2e
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) February 8, 2022
NOAA’s latest figures were released months after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned Its landmark report for 2021 stated that atmospheric methane levels are higher than any time in the past 800,000 years.
Despite this dire finding, global policymakers failed to take any concrete steps to address methane emissions at November’s COP26 climate summit. While dozens Climate groups have confirmed that additional countries have signed on to a pledge by climate groups to reduce methane emissions 30% by 2020 levels by the end if the decade ends. argued that “pledges are just words on a page without concrete action to make them real.”
The Biden administration presented rules that would reduce U.S. methane emission during the COP26 talks. However, critics criticized the announcement. said They don’t go far enough. The U.S. is the second-largest The world’s largest emitter of methane
“For too long, we’ve known the damaging impacts of this potent heat-trapping pollutant, known that oil and gas operations continue to be a major source of it, and known that solutions to drive rapid reductions across the sector already exist — yet still, oil and gas operations continue to release untenably high and entirely preventable methane emissions,” Julie McNamara, deputy policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement at the time.
“Swiftly reducing methane emissions,” said McNamara, “will result in significant and much-needed near-term climate progress.”
