Global methane emissions driven by Soviet leaks, volcanoes and El Ninos, not cows

JoNova ^ | August 4th, 2013 | joanne

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

CSIRO wants to stop methane emissions: but can they get a grant to stop El Nino’s and cap volcanoes?

This type of trans-Siberian cow used to emit a lot of methane.

Tom Quirk sent me a short note to point out that the big rise in global methane almost certainly was man-made — at least up to the mid 1980′s, but in the last 20 years, the culprit for rising methane appears to be volcanoes and El Ninos. (Note the timing of the spikes in the graph below, as methane pours into the atmosphere some years, but barely changes in most other recent years).

Apparently, the man-made emissions in the 70s and 80s were largely due to leaky pipes in the Soviet Union. Natural gas was dirt cheap up til the mid 1970′s. It was so cheap the Russians didn’t bother to plug those flawed pipes. But as prices rose (and after a big nasty explosion in 1982*) they got serious, fixed the pipes and stopped a lot of the out-gassing.

Meanwhile, the Australian government is spending millions and killing camels in the hope of reducing global methane and changing the weather.

There are many graphs of atmospheric methane levels showing ominous unnatural rises, but the driving forces become so much clearer if we look closely at the annual change in methane levels.   — Jo

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The true story of the drivers of methane

Guest Post: Tom Quirk

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I maintain it is the release of gas by human beings that is the cause of climate problems.

[Flag_This]

"I maintain it is the release of gas by human beings that is the cause of climate problems."

Who among us hasn't experienced the occasional soviet leak?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.

2004: Oh, that big 1982 Siberian explosion? [William Safire]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1071087/posts

[Reeses]

Trace amount of oxygen dissolved in water kills methanogens, the microorganisms that generate methane. Possibly aerating water for people and animals just before they drink it would control this problem.

[BwanaNdege]

I maintain it is the release of gas by human beings that is the cause of climate problems.

STOP BURRITO PROLIFERATION - NOW!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

At least require registration to possess a burrito.

[Rocky]

STOP BURRITO PROLIFERATION - NOW!

Bean plants grow by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and converting it to chemicals useful to the plant (by photosynthesis). And then we eat the beans and return the CO2 to the atmosphere. It's the cycle of life.

[BwanaNdege]

According to the IPCC, the 20 year Global Warming Potential of methane is 72, which means that if the same mass of methane and carbon dioxide were introduced into the atmosphere, that methane will trap 72 times more heat than the carbon dioxide over the next 20 years.

Flatulence methane will destroy us all!

(especially if one is trapped in an elevator or closed automobile)

Need I say it? /sarc

[Rocky]

Of course in the cycle of bean growth, and bean digestion, a certain amount of by-product methane is generated.