New Year’s Resolution – Methane Response
16 hours ago Guest Blogger 74 Comments
Roger Caiazza
I am announcing my New Year’s resolution here in hopes of getting feedback and to spur others to provide their resolutions when we hear yet another climate talking point.
When I hear anyone say that methane is more potent than carbon dioxide because the radiative forcing produced is greater, I resolve to say that is only true in the laboratory on a molecular basis. In the atmosphere where it counts methane is not nearly as potent.
Discussion
I have heard the methane scare story all over but my primary concern is New York. As part of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) methane is irrationally disparaged as part of the war on natural gas. The rationale used always revolves around the potency of methane relative to CO2. To respond I have developed a page that consolidates reason why methane should not be vilified. I included the following arguments.
Clyde Spender explained that changes to radiation effects occur on a molecule-by-molecule basis in the atmosphere in an article here titled The Misguided Crusade to Reduce Anthropogenic Methane Emissions. The Climate Act tracks emissions by weight. In the atmosphere CO2 is more than two orders of magnitude more abundant than CH4 on a molecular basis. The Climate Act uses the global warming potential that estimates the mid-range, long-term warming potential of CH4 is 32 times that of CO2. However, that equivalence is for equal weights of the two gases! Using a molecular basis (parts per million-volume mole-fraction) to account for the lighter CH4 molecule reveals that the annual contribution to warming is a fraction of that claimed for CO2. Methane emissions on a molecular basis are increasing at a rate of 0.58% of CO2 increases. Therefore, changes in methane emissions have insignificant effects.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/12/29/new-years-resolution-methane-response/
