2023 marks hottest temperature rise from previous year with greenhouse gas concerns - krcgtv.com
2023 marks hottest temperature rise from previous year with greenhouse gas concerns
The year 2023 marked the warmest average global temperature increase from 2022, with a increase of 2.77 degrees Fahrenheit compared to the previous year. This rise has been attributed in part to greenhouse gasses such as methane, which, according to experts, is even more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat within the Earth's atmosphere.
Dr. Amy Townhouse Small is an environmental scientist at the University of Cincinnati and has emphasized the severity of methane's influence, highlighting its potency as a greenhouse gas. "Methane is a more dangerous greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide," Small explained, underscoring its alarming 86 times greater heat-trapping capacity compared to carbon dioxide.
To address the need to curb methane emissions, the company MethaneSat made up of environmental Scientists and engineers, launched a satellite on March 3, 2024 aimed at identifying and monitoring areas of significant methane release worldwide. One notable source of such emissions is cattle farming, with Missouri ranking sixth in the United States for cattle population with 5% of cattle raised in the industry done in the Show Me state.
Dr. Townhouse Small expressed optimism about the satellite's potential to mitigate methane emissions, stressing the importance of addressing high-emission sources once identified by the Satellite.
Apart from cattle farming, other notable sources of methane emissions include natural gas and petroleum systems, (such as heat used in ones home) landfills, coal mining operations, and manure management. The deployment of advanced satellite will be able to aid scientists and policymakers in pinpointing these emission hotspots and implementing effective regulatory measures.
Related Knowledge Center: Methane
As the production of natural gas from shale fields has expanded, so have methane emissions. U.S. methane emissions grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. Methane contributes about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.