Impact of Methane Emissions and Its Possible Tipping Point in the Arctic Region

Methane emissions are growing very rapidly.  In the short term, methane emissions have 80 times the impact of CO2, therefore, this is a major issue.  Given below is a graph of the Monthly Average Global Methane Levels at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii:

Given below are several related articles, reports, websites and videos:

1) Reuters: How thawing permafrost could fuel climate warming by Michael Ovaska, Prasanta Kumar Dutta and Clare Baldwin, Oct 5, 2020.  The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, and some scientists believe that thawing permafrost — ground frozen since the last Ice Age — is about to release enormous amounts of climate-warming emissions. 

2) David Borlace from Just Have a Think is getting very concerned about the methane and the potential tipping point of methane from arctic region.  As a result he has created several videos about this topic.  His recent ones are shown below: 

a) Video: Lockdown methane INCREASE!! What’s going on?, Jan 15, 2023

b) Video: Arctic System Collapse? Devastating new research, Sep 18, 2022

c) Video: Blue Hydrogen. The greatest fossil fuel scam in history?, Sep 5, 2021

d) Video: Arctic Methane. Has 2020 triggered a tipping point?, Nov 15, 2020

e) Video: Methane: The Arctic’s hidden climate threat : Natalia Shakhova’s latest paper, Jun 23, 2019

f) NASA Short Video: Sources of Methane

3) CP: Alberta, Saskatchewan methane emissions almost 4 times more than reported: research, Bob Weber, The Canadian Press – Feb 20, 2023

4) Bloomberg: Intense methane cloud over Alberta oil and gas hub goes undetected by regulators, Bloomberg News, Oct 31, 2022

5) Davidsuzuki.org: Methane pollution from the oil and gas industry

6) IEA: Global Methane Tracker 2022, Overview

7) EPA: Overview of Greenhouse Gases: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and Fluorinated Gases

8) Global Methane Initiative: Global Methane Emissions and Mitigation Opportunities

9) UNEP: Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here’s how to reduce them, 20 AUG 2021

10) IMF: Methane Emissions Must Fall for World to Hit Temperature Targets by Simon Black, Ian Parry, Nate Vernon, November 2, 2022.  Fees are a promising and practical solution, especially those that build off existing business taxes common for extractive industries and agriculture.

12) Guardian: Revealed: 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points, Damian Carrington, 6 Mar 2023 
Vast releases of gas, along with future ‘methane bombs’, represent huge threat – but curbing emissions would rapidly reduce global heating.  More than 1,000 “super-emitter” sites gushed the potent greenhouse gas methane into the global atmosphere in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars.

13) Guardian: Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study by Damian Carrington, Mon 6 Mar 2023 – Emissions from food system alone will drive the world past target, unless high-methane foods are tackled

Note: Short link to this webpage: ClimateSAN.org/methane