When talking about climate change (the change in global climate patterns) we tend to think about ice melting, rising temperature, and the greenhouse gases associated with these changes. Greenhouse gases basically trap heat in the atmosphere. The most common one we hear about is Carbon Dioxide, also known as CO2. Carbon Dioxide is extremely dangerous to the atmosphere, but there is another greenhouse gas that is commonly overlooked, Methane.
Methane gas is just as dangerous and even more than Carbon Dioxide. Methane traps more heat energy than Carbon Dioxide, making Methane 84x more potent than Carbon Dioxide. The sad part is that about 25% of global warming that is happening today is due our Methane emissions (Hamburg, 2016). Methane is also dangerous because it comes from a lot of things and can be found nearly anywhere. It has been found all over Earth, buried beneath Earth’s Layers and miles above Earth’s surface.
Methane gas largely comes from the oil, coal, and heat industry. However, 14% of Methane emissions come from agriculture. One of the biggest contributors? Cows. Yes, cows (seriously, look it up). Some scientists say that cows can produce up to 500 liters of methane per day (Silverman, 2007). That’s a lot of Methane that’s being released into the atmosphere. Now I’m not saying we need to get rid of cows, but I am saying that you should consider cutting back on red meat and dairy products (I probably will write an entire article just about cows in the future, so stay tuned!). So yes, Methane gas is extremely potent and an issue we need to address when dealing with climate change.
Sources
1. Steve Hamburg “Methane: The Other Important Greenhouse Gas” 2016.
EDF.org.
2. Jacob Silverman "Do cows pollute as much as cars?" 16 July 2007.
HowStuffWorks.com.
