Let’s not forget about methane – it’s ‘very, very scary’
Carbon dioxide gets the most attention but it is not the only heat-trapping gas causing Global Warming. Methane, 23 times stronger, is so potent it makes CO2 look like the good guy. Some burn methane to get CO2, considered the lesser of two evils.

But methane is not as prevalent – at least not yet. It has contributed about 20% of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere since pre-industrial times, according to PlanetArk, while CO2 is responsible for about 60%.

As a natural phenomenon, methane is emitted from plants, wetlands, soil, gas hydrate deposits, lakes and oceans. But 60% is believed to be the result of human activities.

Emissions have risen dramatically in the 20th century as a result of agriculture, landfills, burning of fossil fuels, cattle and sheep. It slowed some in the past decade, a phenomenon that is little understood, according to the journal Science. Some suggest it may be due in part to a loss of wetlands, says PlanetArk.

The International Panel on Climate Control says methane emissions have increased 150% since 1750.

The danger in thawing permafrost
There’s enormous potential for a rush of methane into the atmosphere as warmer temperatures cause permafrost to melt in the Arctic.

Thawing permafrost is already undermining trees, houses, roads, bridges and other infrastructure from Alaska to Siberia, as previously frozen ground sags and buckles.

But of more concern for the entire planet is the carbon stored in the oxygen-free vegetation preserved in the permafrost, which will be released as methane when it thaws. There’s as much carbon stored in the Arctic permafrost as there is in the atmosphere today, says Phil Camill, an ecologist at Carleton College.

Camill has been tracking the permafrost thaw rate at 5 locations in the Arctic, on the southern fringes where it is only a few meters thick. (Further north it can be hundreds of meters thick.)The rate of thaw has tripled at those sites since 1970, as the average temperature rose 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, he said, and if the trend continues, the permafrost will be gone by century’s ends.

“We are unplugging the refrigerator in the far north,” Camill told the journal Nature. “Everything that is preserved there is going to start to rot.” Another scientist, Water Oechel at San Diego State, says, “The potential amounts are huge and very, very scary.”

There may be anywhere from 350 and 900 gigatons of carbon captured in the permafrost, scientists estimate. An estimated 750 gigiatons of carbon is now in the atmosphere, so the amount could double. By comparison, fossil fuels and deforestation now emit about 9 gigatons into the atmosphere each year, according to Nature.

In northern Siberia, methane is bubbling up from thaw lakes created as permafrost melts. Scientists figure methane released in that region increased 58% between 1974 and 2000, according to Environmental Defense, and it’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Permafrost in that area of Siberia is especially carbon-rich.

A lot is not known
In the “active layer” of soil above the permafrost, a thick layer of moss could act as a good insulator and it is possible new trees growing where tundra had been, as well as lighter snowfalls, could give some protection against thaw, even as Arctic temperatures rise.

In 2005, two scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, both in Boulder, Colo., tried to project permafrost thaw through the end of the century. Using the high and low emissions scenarios of IPCC, they predicted 60-90% of permafrost could be gone by 2100. They were criticized both for not including feedback loops, which could accelerate thaw, and for ignoring the very thick permafrost in the northern Arctic, which could slow it down.

A lot is still not known and more work needs to be done. Methane and its feedback loops are already being studied by a number of scientists from around the world so new data should be available by the next IPCC report in 5 years.

“We have been asleep at the switch,” Oechel told Nature. “If you look at the things that were said in the 1970s about the Arctic’s response to increasing CO2, the place we were off is not that we overstated … but that we were not aggressive enough about the predictions.”

Burning methane
One bright spot about methane is that it only stays in the atmosphere 12 years, compared with carbon dioxide’s 100; then it turns into CO2 and water.

And methane is being seen as a cheap source of energy. Increasingly it is captured and burned for power, which releases CO2, seen as preferable.

• In South America and Asia, dozens projects have been approved under Kyoto to treat manure from pig and chicken farms, to extract methane and use it to generate electricity.

• Several European nations, including Germany and the Netherlands, are capturing methane from landfills and coalmines to make electricity.

• In the U.S., more than 400 landfills are providing power to 780,000 homes and heating more than a million. It’s the cheapest form of renewable energy, says the general manager of Washington Electric Cooperative. The EPA is working with 20 countries to put methane to work as a power source.

• Orange County is getting power by turning methane into liquid gas by chilling it to freeze out CO2, sulfur and other pollutants. This first-of-a-kind project has a goal of 35,000 gallons a day.

But what about solutions to methane escaping from melting permafrost? Taking strong immediate action to stop Global Warming before it thaws seems to be the only answer so far.

FYI: Other heat-trapping gases
Additional greenhouse gases include:
• nitrous oxide, mainly emitted from manure and fertilizer;
• hydrofluorocarbons, formerly used in refrigeration but damaged the ozone layer and was largely phased out by the Montreal Protocol (though it still lingers in the atmosphere);
• its replacement, clorofluorocarbons are benign to ozone but a strong GHG that is growing fast;
• sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and perfluorocarbons. These two are emitted in aluminum and magnesium smelting and computer chip production. They are in the atmosphere in very small amounts but once there, last more than 10,000 years, according to Science.

CO2 is most important to Global Warming because its increase in atmospheric concentration since pre-industrial times has been 100 parts per million, while methane’s has been about 1 part per million, and some of the others have only been in the parts per billion or trillion. The Kyoto Protocol gives credit for reducing any of these heat-trapping gases, using carbon dioxide-equivalent as a measure.

(Sources: the journal Science, the journal Nature, PlanetArk.com, Greenwire, Environmental Defense)


News briefs

1. Cities vow to create ‘critical mass’ in Global Warming fight
Mayors from some of the largest, most polluted cities in the world met in New York City last week to pledge they will fight Global Warming despite what their federal governments do or don’t do. Cities produce three-quarters of the world’s carbon dioxide, London Mayor Ken Livingston told the C40 Large Cities Climate Group summit, hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton.
At the summit:
• 500 U.S. mayors signed the Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement to protest federal inaction and support the GHG goals of Kyoto: 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012.
• The Clinton Climate Initiative announced bank loans of $5 billion to retrofit municipal buildings in 15 cities, including New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Mexico City and Seoul. The same 15 cities will give incentives to retrofit private buildings with help from local banks and companies. Buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy (in New York and London it’s 70%) and powering buildings emits half the world’s GHG, Livingston said.
Other topics at the summit: renewable energy sources, water systems and mass transit. (Sources: PlanetArk.com, Daily Telegraph AU, Greenwire)

2. Arctic summer sea ice melting even faster than expected
Arctic sea ice is disappearing in summer at a rate of 7.8% a decade, researchers have learned, much faster than computer model projections of 2.5%. So the ice may be gone in summer by mid-century, several decades earlier than previously thought. The study, by NCAR and the University of Colorado National Snow and Ice Data Center, was just published in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters. Also in that journal: a study that said a surge in CO2 levels in the past 5 years might be due in part to hot, dry weather preventing trees, plants and soil from absorbing as much carbon dioxide. More research is needed to see if this will continue as Global Warming accelerates, said researchers from the University of Bristol in the U.K. (Sources: MSNBC, Greenwire, The Sydney Morning Herald)

3. Ocean around Antarctica can’t absorb much more carbon
The Southern Ocean around Antarctica, a major sink for carbon, has been nearly saturated since the 1980s, according to the journal Science. Normally, about one-fourth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels is absorbed by oceans. The researcher, from the University of East Anglia, called the finding “very alarming” because this wasn’t expected to happen until at least mid-century. Also in Science: NASA and University of Colorado researchers report that an area in Antarctica the size of California melted in 2005, when temperatures rose to 41 degree F for a week, and then refroze. It is too soon to know if this is a trend or an anomaly, they said. (Sources: PlanetArk.com, Greenwire)

4. U.S. tries to water down G8 climate-change language
U.S. officials are trying to prevent the G8 from pledging next month to hold temperature increases to 3.6 degrees F this century. They also want to omit from the planned declaration a call for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases (below 1990 levels) by 2050. Third, American officials don’t like the part about the United Nations being the forum to address and regulate Global Warming. A group of 15 Democratic committee heads in Congress sent a letter Friday to the Bush Administration objecting to its stance. (Source: Greenwire, E&E News PM)

Congressional round-up

*Senate leader Reid reveals energy/climate package for summer
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) said this week biofuels, fuel economy and building efficiency will be in a package of bills that will be debated in the Senate after Memorial Day. The package includes:
• A renewable fuels mandate for 8.5 billion gallons in 2008 and 36B by 2022. Advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol would be an increasing portion after 2016.
• A corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) requirement of 35 mpg by 2020 in cars and light trucks, with an increase after that of 4% a year.
• Senate building energy efficiency and matching grants to cities and counties.
• Strategic energy partnerships with other nations
The biofuels bill may have competition from a more aggressive bill by Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and Energy Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) may add a national renewable electricity mandate to require utilities to use 15% renewable power by 2020. Two Republicans may try again to add coal-to-liquid to the biofuels bill after it failed in committee. Carbon sequestration and price gouging are likely to be in the mix. But not mandatory caps on GHG. Reid called the package “a solid first step.”

*Two senators seek ‘carbon counter’ as prelude to cap-and-trade
Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Amy Klobucar (D-Minn.) introduced a bill requiring reporting of GHG emissions to the EPA, a national version of the Carbon Registry announced by 31 states last week. Knowing where GHG are coming from is necessary for a successful cap-and-trade system, they said.

*Dems from oil and gas states want ‘seat at the table’
In a letter to the leadership in Congress, 19 Democrats, mainly from oil- and gas-producing states, cautioned against climate policies that will interrupt supply or spike prices or they’ll face public wrath. Oil and gas will both be important sources of fuel for a long time, they said, and demand for natural gas is likely to grow in the short run because it is cleaner than coal. Those signing are from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Arkansas, Georgia and Hawaii. They want a seat at the table when climate policy is crafted, Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told E&E Daily.

* West Virginia rep’s bill seeks inventory of carbon storage spots
House Natural Resources Chair Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) is calling for a national inventory of places to sequester carbon dioxide. Coming from a coal state, he’s concerned about the effect of climate legislation on the coal industry. Many are saying capture and sequestration, still at the experimental stage, will be necessary for a healthy coal industry.

*Two bills tell fed agencies to catalog their greenhouse gases
Sens. Snowe and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) unveiled a bill requiring federal agencies to record GHG emissions caused by their buildings, fleets and other sources. Unlike a similar bill in the House by Oversight Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), it does not require a reduction in emissions. Waxman would freeze GHG for the agencies in 2010 and cut them to zero by 2050.
(Sources: E&E Daily, E&E News PM, Associated Press)

Do something

With summer around the corner, think “fresh.” Fresh air, as in open your car or house windows instead of automatically turning on the air conditioner; get out in the fresh air to walk and bike instead of enclosing yourself in a car; and buy fresh produce from a local farmer’s market. Better to buy fruits and veggies that haven’t been transported across the country (or the world) at considerable cost in CO2 emissions. Patronize farmers from your state or those nearby.

Tell your Rep you want greater fuel economy for cars. Add your name to the League of Conservation Voters campaign by going to http://action.lcv.org/campaign/fueleconomy and asking your Congressman to co-sponsor the Markey-Platt bill.

Special note to Chicagoans: A reader from non-profit I-GO Car Sharing invites you to a local-band CD release party with live music at Metro, 3730 N. Clark, Thursday, May 31. I-GO says it has eliminated 1,500 private cars and saved nearly 8,000 tons of CO2 since 2004. They want to make the Global Warming fight more fun. For more info, check http://igocars.org/igoaudiomissions.(For some unknown reason I'm having trouble creating this link. But you should be able to type it in and go there.)