Methane is an Environmental Wildcard

What does The Arctic Institute mean by methane being an environmental wildcard in climate change risk assessments? Should we call The Arctic Institute and ask, or perhaps find out more about methane by ourselves? We can do both, but let us start by finding out more through some research about methane.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), methane is one of the greenhouse gases that pollutes our global environment. In the short-term, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In the long run, methane is at least 22 times stronger as a greenhouse gas in comparison to carbon dioxide.

The chemical compound methane (CH₄ ) is a powerful greenhouse gas and source of energy, which can be found naturally below ground and under the sea floor. At room temperature methane is colorless, odorless and nontoxic, but may as an extremely flammable gas become explosive when mixed with air. Methane is a powerful energy source, which is why it has become so appealing to some energy markets. The risks of methane, however, may exceed its benefits. The usage of methane in energy production equals the usage of yet another fossil fuel, which have been proved to cause the greenhouse effect that is currently warming our planet so rapidly. Especially in the Arctic region, according to e.g. mother nature network, methane causes rapid warming and contributes strongly to climate change and glaciers melting.

Learn more about methane and its impacts on our climate by watching Environmental Defense Fund´s video “Methane – The other important greenhouse gas”:

Connect with me on Twitter @annemariayritys. For climate/environment-related posts only @GCCThinkActTank. Subscribe to Leading With Passion to receive my latest posts.

 

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