Releasing methane into the atmosphere could reduce global warming if we knew how to do it

“There is probably nothing we can do that will significantly affect global warming over the next few decades than the removal of methane,” he said. Rob Jackson, a researcher at Stanford and co-author of both studies.

Methane is low: carbon dioxide is about 200 percent more in the atmosphere. However, it has contributed about 30% of global warming so far, or about 0.5 ˚C, according to a recent study. reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Although it remains in the atmosphere for about 10 years, over a long period of time it contains a large amount of carbon dioxide.

“Methane will go away, but in the meantime, it will cause problems,” he said Vaishali Naik, astronomer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Because of the short-term, if methane emissions were cut today, the amount of atmospheric pressure could drop dramatically. Soon UN Environment Program Report on methane based on Naik’s findings, researchers think a 45% reduction in methane emissions today would reduce the temperature by 0.28 ˚C by the 500th century — leading to global warming by 1.5 ˚C in pre-existing levels, according to the Paris agreement.

About two-thirds of these scars can be found through problem-solving techniques, Naik says. This includes irrigating natural gas wells and reducing dependence on coal mines, which store methane stored in the ground where the crop is produced as coal. Reducing emissions is cheaper and easier than developing the removal technology, he says.

But in order to reduce temperatures below 1.5 ˚C, methane emissions from factories such as agriculture must also be reduced – which can be detrimental to human growth.