I hear that methane is more effective on the warming of the world than carbon dioxide. Now I’m hearing from unreliable sources that methane upwelling from the Gulf oil leak will cause the end of the world. How much effect is that amount of methane likely to cause? How much methane might migrate to the atmosphere? Would the methane being burnt reduce the effects?
Also I just saw a trailer for a documentary called GASLAND is which a man sets tap water on fire, apparently due to its contamination by natural gas mining byproducts, how much chance is there of (something I’ve heard from one of the least reliable sources about) the sea going on fire?
Well, In my opinion. Al Gore is the best politician in the world. He came up with global warming and sold it to everybody on the planet. And then ACTUALLY sold it using his “carbon credits”. And people ACTUALLY bought them. The biggest liar in human history, because it has been about a year ago when he was completely disproved by scientists.
Yes, Methane is much worse for the environment than carbon dioxide. But if you remember your history, when we first struck oil in the US before it was the US, the riggers would strike oil and let the gas blow out of the hole before the oil did and when the oil blew out then they would cap it. It wasn’t until much later they discovered a use for the gas that preceded the oil out of the wells. It’s what we call NATURAL GAS.
So think about it, if riggers did that for all of those YEARS, a few months of it shouldn’t bring about the end of the world. I hope not anyways, because I like my life.
My understanding is that methane is a more potent greenhouse gas, but it doesn’t last as long. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
“Methane has a large effect for a brief period (a net lifetime of 8.4 years in the atmosphere), whereas carbon dioxide has a small effect for a long period (over 100 years).”
It’s a question of scale. This one well is nothing more to the total atmosphere than a burp. The natural gas given off will probably not add a measurable decimal point.
Burning it off is unlikely. It’s difficult to get a concentration of natural gas on the surface when it’s appearing under 5000 feet of water. It will be diffused through billions of cubic feet of ocean water. That can’t burn.
There is no comparison at all to the burning of oil that is going on now or has happened in the past. That was concentrated oil thick enough to emerge from the effects of the surrounding water.
Least reliable source in this case is surely an understatement.
As someone pointed out, the most effective greenhouse gas (in terms of heat retention) is water vapor. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to keep the atmospheric concentration of water vapor approximately stable – your local news will have a segment about whether or not there will be water vapor deposition in your area this evening (or tomorrow if you’re reading this late at night). Likewise methane tends to be removed, as Ritter Sport notes. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is removed only through calcite deposition in shallow tropical oceans and, more effectively, by burgeoning plant growth. But we on a global scale are adding more CO[sub]2[/sub] than is being removed, and are in fact reducing some of the most effective vegetative ‘sinks’ (e.g., rain forests).
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I got it indirectly, but I believe it was from Richard Hoagland, he of the Cydonia, pyramids on mars, and so forth, fame.
So as methane only stay in the atmosphere for a few years, what then happens to it? Does it become CO2, as if it had been burned, or does is merely get absorbed by the sea or something along those lines?