Former Sierra Club Chief Carl Pope laments focus on carbon dioxide: Now claims ‘methane is an urgent problem’ – ‘What Environmentalists Like Me Got Wrong About Climate Change’ – ‘It wasn’t until 3 years ago that I came to see the gravity of my mistake’
By Marc Morano
June 23, 2025
11:18 am
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/opinion/climate-change-methane-natural-gas.htmlBy Carl Pope
Mr. Pope is a clean energy policy adviser to several foundations and was the executive director of the Sierra Club from 1992 to 2010.
Excerpt: In my 50 years in the environmental movement, the decision I most regret is one I made in 2005. As the executive director of the Sierra Club, I decided the organization should largely ignore methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and focus on carbon dioxide, the most prevalent heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere and a byproduct of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
My colleagues and I understood that methane, which comes from man-made and natural sources, would eventually have to be curbed to slow climate change. But the data suggested that it was a relatively minor contributor to global warming and could wait. And so I neglected methane for decades, as did many climate regulators, activists and negotiators.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2025/06/23/former-sierra-club-chief-carl-pope-now-laments-focus-on-carbon-dioxide-what-environmentalists-like-me-got-wrong-about-climate-change-it-wasnt-until-3-years-ago-that-i-came-to-see-the/
