Scientists warn that methane levels are at a new 800,000-year high. The sixth destruction is at hand – Executive Digest

Global methane emissions have reached their highest levels in 800,000 years, a study by Stanford University scientists in the US has warned: dire consequences if the problem is not addressed, according to the ‘SciTechDaily’ publication.

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases (GHG). Although it has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane warms the planet almost 90 times faster over a 20-year period. Its primary sources include agriculture, fossil fuels and waste decomposition in landfills. Despite growing global awareness of the need to address methane emissions, they have increased by 61 million tonnes – about 20% – annually over the past two decades.

Much of this growth came from coal mining, oil and gas production, cattle and sheep farming, and waste decomposition. “Only the European Union and Australia appear to have reduced methane emissions from human activities over the past two decades,” said Mariel Chaunois of the University of Paris-Saclay in France. ‘Earth System Science Data’. “The biggest regional increase came from China and Southeast Asia.”

In 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 65% of global methane emissions – nearly 400 million tonnes – came from human activities: agriculture and waste alone contributed nearly twice as much methane as the fossil fuel sector.

The Stanford University study is consistent with other recent studies that have warned emissions are at record levels: last April the International Energy Agency (IEA) said methane emissions were at historic levels, while scientists at the National Oceanic Administration and the National Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) ) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), the three most dangerous GHGs, are at record levels.

The global methane budget is exhausted, Stanford scientists have asserted. “Our best estimates for anthropogenic emissions [causadas pelo homem] The last year for which complete data on methane is available is 372 tonnes in 2020 [345-409] and 392 tons [368-409] Global methane budgets are bottom-up and top-down methods,” the scientists highlighted.

“The largest sources of emissions are: wetlands and inland freshwater, agriculture and waste, and fossil fuel production and use. Direct anthropogenic emissions from top-down estimates now account for ∼65% of global emissions. When indirect anthropogenic emissions such as dams and reservoirs are included, a third of the total Part two is anthropology.

The Paris Agreement does not set specific limits on methane, but recognizes the importance of reducing all GHGs, particularly methane, due to its significant impact on short-term warming. The initiative was ‘linked’ to the Global Methane Pledge launched in 2021, which aimed to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels – which has not happened. Methane emissions have increased dramatically since 2015, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Methane causes the sixth extinction

According to members of the Global Carbon Project at Stanford, the level of methane emissions will completely miss the 1.5°C limit and put it on track for a catastrophic 3°C rise by the end of this century, the world’s sixth human-made extinction event. Part or more will die.

“Studies show that with an increase in global temperature of 1.5 degrees, the risk of extinction of animals and plants increases by 4% – but with an increase of 3 degrees, this risk increases by up to 26%”, said Caroline Müller, a professor at the University of Bielefeld in Germany.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that about one million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction. A warning came from the UN as well. “Biodiversity forms the web on which we depend for many things, such as food, water, medicine, stable climate, economic growth, etc. More than half of global GDP depends on nature. More than a billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods. And land and sea absorb more than half of all carbon emissions,” the United Nations warned. “But nature is in crisis. Up to a million species are at risk of extinction, within decades. Irreplaceable ecosystems such as parts of the Amazon rainforest are turning from carbon sinks to carbon sources due to deforestation. 8% of wetlands, such as salt marshes and swamps, which absorb large amounts of carbon, have disappeared.

Despite global pledges by more than 150 countries to cut methane emissions by 30% this decade, emissions have increased at an unprecedented rate in the past five years, threatening international efforts to curb climate change. In Environmental Research Letters, the study authors, led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson, argued that “this trend cannot continue if a livable climate is to be maintained.” The data, published alongside a paper in ‘Earth System Science Data’, show that atmospheric methane concentrations are now 2.6 times higher than pre-industrial levels – where they have been for at least 800 thousand years.