| Widen attack on greenhouse gases to include methane Stelling1 #146443 The world could buy itself 15 years of breathing space for fighting climate change by broadening the attack on greenhouse gases to include methane. A 40% reduction in human-caused methane emissions would permit the release of an extra 500 gigatonnes of CO2 before the planet exceeds 2 °C warming. |
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+Citaten (1)
- CitatenVoeg citaat toeList by: CiterankMapLink[1] Methane cuts could delay climate change by 15 years
Citerend uit: Fred Pearce - quoting Peter Cox from the University of Exeter
Geciteerd door: David Price 3:21 PM 28 March 2012 GMT
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| Fragment- The world could buy itself 15 years of breathing space for fighting climate change, one of the world's top climate modellers argued on Monday.
Peter Cox at the University of Exeter, UK, was speaking at the Planet Under Pressure meeting in London, where more than 2800 scientists gathered to discuss fears that Earth's life-support systems are under intense stress from human activity.
The trick, he says, is to widen our attack on greenhouse gases from carbon dioxide to include the second most significant greenhouse gas - methane. "Methane is a more important control on global temperature than previously realised. The gas's influence is much greater than its direct effect on the atmosphere," says Cox. Curbing methane, he adds, may now be the only way to prevent dangerous warming.
We release methane in many ways - leaks from gas pipelines and coal mines, from landfills, the guts of livestock and rice paddies. Curbing these emissions would bring a manifold benefit for climate, says Cox.
He has studied the way CO2 and methane influence plant growth, and says that these feedback mechanisms mean action on methane could have twice the expected punch. |