Submitted by raulbloodwurth t3_y2hh1n in science
matt_the_hat t1_is49oc3 wrote
One of the reasons this is important is that Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Splenda t1_isodzji wrote
Methane is far more than 25 times as potent as CO2 as a greenhouse gas. It's all relative to the time that methane exists before oxidizing to CO2. The 25x figure is measured over a century but methane only lasts for about 9 years, during which its greenhouse warming effect is around 140x CO2.
There is much industry pressure to stretch the time window by which methane's greenhouse warming potential is measured, because the longer the period the less harmful methane looks.
L7Death t1_is4vmrq wrote
Methane is measured in parts per billion though. While CO2 is measured in parts per million. Orders of magnitude and all that.... Methane simply doesn't accumulate like CO2, since methane becomes CO2 and water by hydroxyl reactions in the atmosphere within a decade.
SerialStateLineXer t1_is5awr3 wrote
Specifically, the half-life of atmospheric methane is about nine years.
raulbloodwurth OP t1_is5hqvu wrote
The global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 is 84-times higher than CO2 over 20 years and 28-times higher over 100 years.
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