2. It can be more than just a fuel. Obviously, we shouldn’t be burning fossil methane at all. But once it’s out of the ground—or captured from a landfill—we can do much better than using it as a fuel. A research team at Stanford University has come up with an impressive plan to use methane to produce food for aquaculture operations. Methane-derived additives could replace about 14% of current fishmeal, which would in turn reduce pressure on today’s over-harvested fisheries. There are also plans afoot to use methane to produce electricity directly, without burning it in a natural gas power plant. The technology, which uses methane-munching bacteria, is still in its infancy, but has the benefit of producing no CO2 at all.
3. Meat without methane. Another big source of methane is agriculture, and particularly cattle. Changing people’s behavior is never straightforward but new technologies are making the prospect of eating fewer cows—and avoiding their copious methane emissions—a tasty possibility. The sooner we hit “peak beef” worldwide (we’ve likely already managed that in the US), the better.
• • •
The Case for Staying on Message with Carbon
1. Carbon is the bigger problem. Fossil carbon is less of a greenhouse gas than methane, but humanity produces a whole lot more of it. Carbon dioxide not only leads in absolute volume of emissions, but also causes at least three times the global warming of methane. Every dollar spent to decarbonize society could scale more efficiently that one spent on methane reductions. |
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