“Right now, the goals of the Global Methane Pledge seem as distant as a desert oasis,” said Jackson, who is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and lead author of the Environmental Research Letters paper. [...] Increases are being driven primarily by growth of emissions from coal mining, oil and gas production and use, cattle and sheep ranching, and decomposing food and organic waste in landlls. “Only the European Union and possibly Australia appear to have decreased methane emissions from human activities over the past two decades,” said Marielle Saunois of the Université Paris-Saclay in France and lea. [...] “COVID changed nearly everything – from fossil fuel use to emissions of other gases that alter the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere.” Quantifying humans’ inuence on methane from wetlands and waterways The Global Carbon Project scientists have made an important change in their latest accounting of global methane sources and “sinks,” which include forests and soils that remove and store methane. [...] “Emissions from reservoirs behind dams are as much a direct human source as methane emissions from a cow or an oil and gas eld,” said Jackson, who published a new book about methane and climate solutions titled Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere (Scribner) in July. The scientists estimate that about a third of wetland and freshwater methane emissions in recent years wer. [...] After a summer when severe weather and heat waves have given a glimpse of the extremes predicted in our changing climate, the authors write, “The world has reached the threshold of 1.5C increases in global average surface temperature, and is only beginning to experience the full consequences.” Jackson is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institu.
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Table of Contents
- Peer-Reviewed Publication 1
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY 1
- This article is under embargo. It is not available for public release until 10-Sep-2024 0200 ET 10-Sep- 2024 0600 GMTUTC 1
- The world has not hit the brakes on methane emissions a powerful driver of climate change. More than 150 1
- The trend cannot continue if we are to maintain a habitable climate the researchers write in a Sept. 10 1
- Jackson that tracks greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. 1
- Atmospheric concentrations of methane are now more than 2.6 times higher than in pre-industrial times the 1
- The current path leads to global warming above 3 degrees Celsius or 5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this 1
- More methane from fossil fuels agriculture and waste 1
- Methane is a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas that comes from natural sources like wetlands and 1
- Despite growing policy focus on methane however total annual methane emissions have increased by 61 1
- Only the European Union and possibly Australia appear to have decreased methane emissions from human 1
- In 2020 the most recent year for which complete data are available nearly 400 million tons or 65 of global 2
- Assessing pandemic impacts 2
- Our atmosphere accumulated nearly 42 million tons of methane in 2020 twice the amount added on average 2
- Pandemic lockdowns in 2020 reduced transport-related emissions of nitrogen oxides NOx which typically 2
- Were still trying to understand the full eects of COVID lockdowns on the global methane budget said 2
- Jackson. COVID changed nearly everything from fossil fuel use to emissions of other gases that alter the 2
- Quantifying humans inuence on methane from wetlands and waterways 2
- The Global Carbon Project scientists have made an important change in their latest accounting of global 2
- In previous assessments they categorized all methane from wetlands lakes ponds and rivers as natural. But 2
- For instance reservoirs built by people lead to an estimated 30 million tons of methane emitted per year 2
- Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere Scribner in July. 2
- The scientists estimate that about a third of wetland and freshwater methane emissions in recent years were 2
- After a summer when severe weather and heat waves have given a glimpse of the extremes predicted in our 2
- Jackson is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy. 2
- Other Stanford co-authors include Earth system science postdoctoral scholars Xueying Yu and Mengze Li and Earth 2
- This research was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation UNEPs International Methane Emissions 3
- Observatory IMEO the Australian Governments National Environmental Science Programmes Earth Systems and 3
- Climate Change Hub and Future Earth. 3
- This article is under embargo. It is not available for public release until 10-Sep-2024 0200 ET 10-Sep- 2024 0600 GMTUTC 3
- Disclaimer AAAS and EurekAlert are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert 3
- JOURNAL 3
- Environmental Research Letters 3
- DOI 3
- 10.10881748-9326ad6463 3
