Cooling The Planet Down - Now or Never

Let’s talk about methane. Exciting. (I promise it actually is).

If CO2 is a light cardigan, methane is a Canada Goose in terms of warming the planet.

It makes up only a fragment of the atmosphere but it’s around 80 times more powerful than CO2 in trapping in heat.

This means for every tiny bit of methane we can prevent from taking off into the atmosphere, there could be a massive positive impact on global warming.

By implementing technologies that already exist - and are readily available, we can reduce global temperatures by half a degree in the next 80 years.

That might sound tiny, but the impact on the planet is massive.

It will also either cost nothing, or make us money.

One of the reasons methane is less scary than CO2 is because it breaks down miles faster.

CO2 will hang around in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, methane is closer to just a decade.

Again this means that every little amount of methane kept away from the atmosphere is that much more impactful.

So who’s releasing the most methane and how to we stop it.

When you think methane you probably think cows… rightly so. Farms contribute about 31% of our methane.

It’s not just gassy cows that are responsible but water waste and other inefficient practices.

Meat production isn’t the easiest target however, unless we’re all willing to go vegan or at least eat A LOT less meat.

So where else?

In the oil and gas industry, implementing mitigation strategies will actually save the industry money.

Many world leaders have committed to reducing methane already. However, the power of methane over other greenhouse gases, and the massive and fairly immediate benefits it can have - are only now being widely realised.

Britain has one of the most ambitious emission cut plans in the world, set our by Boris Johnson - To cut emissions by 78% in 14 years.

Methane however is nowhere on the 10 point plan.

The recent research I hope, will change that, and encourage world leaders everywhere to take this action and include it in the battle against global warming.

Keep your eyes peeled for the announcements around climate change, CO2 and methane :)

Are you interested in climate change? or is does it bore you? Let me know —-> ma.yamsy_