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<ul class="summary-list"><li>A well in Kazakhstan leaked 140,000 tons of methane into Earth's atmosphere in 2023, scientists say.</li><li>That's equal to nearly enough gas for nearly 800,000 cars over a year.</li></ul>A methane well in Kazakhstan is estimated to have released 140,000 tons of gas into Earth's atmosphere, as it leaked for 205 days in one of the world's worst-ever blowouts, environmental scientists said.The new figures were reported in a <a target="_blank" href="https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/6709/">pre-print analysis</a> by research teams from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. It was released on Tuesday but has not been peer-reviewed.The BBC also published <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68166298?">an analysis on Thursday</a> about the scientists' findings.Using satellite data, the scientists said they documented some 127,000 metric tons of methane ejected in the Karaturun East oil field in 2023, when a fire there lasted from June to December.That amount of methane is equal to emissions from 791,318 gas-powered cars being driven over a year, per the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator#results">Environment Protection Agency website's calculators.</a>Methane is estimated to have around 28 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. It also accounts for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023">30% of the world's rise in temperatures</a> since the Industrial Revolution.The Karaturun leak began during exploration drilling at the well on June 9, when a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-03/giant-methane-leak-in-kazakhstan-shows-climate-risk-of-gas-exploration">blowout created a 32-foot-high fire</a> and a 50-foot-wide crater that made it difficult to seal up.It was eventually plugged on December 25 when well operator Buzachi Neft injected drilling mud into the wellbore, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.upstreamonline.com/safety/kazakh-operator-halts-gas-fire-at-well-that-has-been-burning-since-june/2-1-1576636?zephr_sso_ott=ODBzqL">per oil and gas newspaper Upstream.</a>The scientists in Europe said it's often difficult to measure how much gas is released in remote leaks like this one, and that they showed how satellite data could be effective in assessing the damage or in discovering unreported leaks.They detected 115 methane emissions over the six months of the Kazakh leak, their analysis said.The Kazakh leak is one of the most disastrous ever recorded, according to Luis Guanter of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, who was part of the research team.He told the BBC that "only the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nord-stream-pipelines-attacked-remote-explosives-uk-intelligence-2022-9">Nord Stream sabotage</a> may have led to a stronger leak."Buzachi Neft, the operator of the well, denied to the outlet that such a vast amount of methane was leaked, saying only a "negligible" amount was released.Buzachi Neft did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

A methane well that leaked for 6 months has released a year's worth of emissions for 791,000 cars: report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Landfills are a large driver of the climate crisis due to their high methane leaks.</li><li>A recent study found methane emissions from landfills were 40% higher than reported.</li></ul>Rotting <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sell-by-best-before-dates-mean-nothing-create-food-waste-2024-3">food scraps</a> and other waste that piles up in landfills across the country are a larger driver of the climate crisis than previously known.Methane leaks from landfills were, on average, 40% higher than what's been reported to the federal government, according to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7735">a study published in the journal Science</a>.Researchers flew airplanes over more than 200 active landfills in the US, or about 20% of the total, between 2018 and 2022 in the largest assessment of the industry to date. Spectrometers detected methane plumes at more than half of those landfills, with most leaking the gas for months, if not years. The plumes were more persistent than those found in the oil and gas sector, which has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cop28-un-climate-conference-oil-and-gas-methane-emissions-satellites-2023-12">come under increasing scrutiny</a> in recent years.Climate scientists say that slashing methane emissions from oil and gas, landfills, and livestock is one of the fastest ways to slow the climate crisis because the gas has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over two decades.Landfills are considered the third-largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the US — behind agriculture and oil and gas. But estimates for landfills are based on computer models and not actual observations, said Dan Cusworth, project scientist at Carbon Mapper and lead author of the study."Bridging that gap is critical," Cusworth said. "It will help mitigate emissions and also validate whether various climate efforts are having the intended impacts."<div type="image" title="An infrared imaging spectrometer inside an airplane." height="3024" width="4032" msid="108916938" hostid="261" sizebytes="983038"></div>Landfill workers currently do walking surveys with handheld sensors to detect methane hot spots. But that method is prone to error and only required once a quarter, Cusworth said. Waste sites can also span thousands of acres and can be dangerous to traverse, especially in areas where trash is being dumped.More advanced methods, like remote sensing from satellites, aircraft, and drones, can deliver a more accurate picture of the methane problem at landfills. The sources of emissions vary. Many large landfills capture methane gas so it can be reused as energy, but that infrastructure can leak. When food waste decomposes, it releases the gas.More timely detection can help landfill operators fix leaks faster, benefiting the planet.Carbon Mapper notified environmental regulators in Southern California and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.paenvironmentdigest.com/newsletter/default.asp?NewsletterArticleID=57582&amp;SubjectID=">Pennsylvania about the methane leaks</a> it detected. In response, officials notified landfill operators so they could reduce emissions.Carbon Mapper aims to launch a constellation of satellites measuring methane and carbon dioxide in partnership with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the climate nonprofit RMI, and others. The methane satellite is expected to be launched this year."Our goal is to launch many of these satellites so we can capture a large swath of global landfill sites, as well as oil and gas sites, to really identify the point-source, facility scale emissions," Cusworth said.The Environmental Defense Fund <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-methanesat-track-global-methane-leaks-03-2024">similarly launched a methane satellite</a> with Space X in March that will police the oil and gas industry.

Landfills are spewing even more methane into the atmosphere than we thought

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Google is planning to use satellite data, AI technology, and computing power to map methane emissions.</li><li>Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that's responsible for nearly a third of global warming.</li></ul>A satellite that measures methane leaks from oil and gas companies is set to start circulating the Earth 15 times a day next month. Google plans to have the data mapped by the end of the year for the whole world to see.The partnership between Google and the Environmental Defense Fund, which in March is expected to launch its satellite known as MethaneSAT, marks a new era of global climate accountability. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/urgent-action-cut-methane-emissions-fossil-fuel-operations-essential#:~:text=Methane%20is%20a%20powerful%20greenhouse,agriculture%2C%20waste%20and%20fossil%20fuels.">Methane</a> is a potent greenhouse gas estimated to be responsible for nearly a third of human-caused global warming. Scientists say slashing methane emissions is one of the fastest ways to slow the climate crisis because methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a decade."Globally, 2023 was the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/world-hottest-year-ever-history-climate-crisis-2024-1">hottest year on record</a>," Steve Hamburg, the EDF's chief scientist and the project lead for MethaneSAT, told reporters. "The need to protect the climate has never been more urgent, and cutting methane emissions from fossil-fuel operations and agriculture is really the fastest way that we can slow the warming right now."Agriculture — particularly cow burps — gets a lot of the blame for the methane problem. The International Energy Agency has said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023/understanding-methane-emissions">farming is the largest source of methane emissions</a> from human activities, but the energy sector is a close second. Oil, gas, and coal operations are thought to account for 40% of global methane emissions from human activities. The IEA says focusing on the energy sector should be a priority, in part because reducing methane leaks is cost-effective. Leaking gas can be captured and sold, and the technology to do that is relatively cheap.But methane has been difficult to track in near-real time. MethaneSAT is among a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellites-locate-source-of-methane-leaks-to-fight-climate-crisis-2022-7">new generation of satellites</a> designed to pinpoint sources of the gas almost anywhere in the world, while Google has the computing power and artificial-intelligence prowess to analyze vast amounts of data and map oil and gas infrastructure.Historically, measuring <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellites-locate-source-of-methane-leaks-to-fight-climate-crisis-2022-7">methane leaks</a> has involved expensive field studies with airplanes and handheld infrared cameras. That approach offers only a snapshot in time, and research took years to be published.Yael Maguire, a vice president and general manager of sustainability at Google Geo — the team behind platforms such as Google Maps and Street View — said mapping oil and gas operations was similarly challenging. The locations of wellheads, industrial pumps, and storage tanks can change quickly, so a map needs to be updated regularly. A satellite can meet that demand.Maguire said the same AI technology that Google used to detect trees, crosswalks, and intersections from satellite imagery would be applied to oil and gas infrastructure. The map would be overlaid with data from MethaneSAT to shed light on the type of machinery most susceptible to leaks."We think this information is incredibly valuable for energy companies, researchers, and the public sector to anticipate and mitigate methane emissions in components that are generally most susceptible," Maguire said.<div type="image" title="A visual of Google's methane emissions map. Yellow dots mark the source and purple, orange, and yellow shading shows how the emissions diffused over a wider area." height="1330" width="2109" msid="107723202" hostid="261"></div><h2>Global methane pledges </h2>The satellite launch comes as countries and oil and gas companies aim to drastically reduce methane emissions by 2030 to tackle the climate crisis.During the UN climate summit in Dubai last year, companies accounting for 40% of global oil and gas production promised to nearly eliminate methane leaks from their own operations this decade. At least 155 countries have also signed the Global Methane Pledge, which calls for a 30% reduction in emissions. The pledge was launched in 2021, but since then, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023">methane emissions have continued to rise</a>.To help change that trajectory, the US and Europe last year issued regulations cracking down on methane emissions from fossil-fuel infrastructure. The <a target="_blank" href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_5776">European Union's rules</a> went a step further by targeting oil and gas imports. Europe imports about 80% of its energy, including from the US. By 2027, those imports are expected to meet methane-emissions standards on par with Europe's.Hamburg said Japan and South Korea, both of which rely on energy imports, were looking at similar laws. "This means methane is becoming a competitive challenge for the industry, not just a regulatory one," he said. "Achieving real results means that the government, civil society, and industry need to know how much methane is coming from where, who is responsible for those emissions, and how those emissions are changing over time. We need the data on a global scale."Maguire said Google planned to make the data available free for the public on Google Earth Engine later this year.

Google is making a map of methane leaks for the whole world to see 

A Japanese <keyword id="41531" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> start-up has achieved a major breakthrough by testing a prototype <keyword id="9428" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="rocket" source="Orion">rocket</keyword> engine, powered entirely by fuel derived from <keyword id="603261" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cow-dung" source="Orion">cow dung</keyword>. This experiment, conducted in the rural town of Taiki, involved a 10-second blast of a blue-and-orange flame. The "<keyword id="4238241" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="biomethane" source="Orion">biomethane</keyword>" used in the test was produced from cow manure collected from local dairy farms, highlighting the potential benefits for both space travel and agriculture. <keyword id="6667916" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="interstellar-technologies" source="Orion">Interstellar Technologies</keyword>, in collaboration with Air Water, developed this environmentally friendly and cost-effective fuel. CEO Takahiro Inagawa stressed its local production, cost efficiency, and high performance. The initiative involved partnering with farmers to process manure into biogas, with Air Water converting it into <keyword id="1008910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rocket-fuel" source="Orion">rocket fuel</keyword>. Eiji Mizushita, a participating farmer with 900 cows, utilised an automated system to convert manure into biogas, fertiliser, and bedding materials. While biogas sales generated minimal income for Mizushita, he found the project rewarding, underscoring the importance of proper manure disposal and advocating for government and societal support in renewable energy production. This innovative approach not only contributes to space exploration but also addresses the environmental impact of agriculture, responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions according to Greenpeace. Despite setbacks in <keyword id="6355311" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="japan" source="Orion">Japan</keyword>'s "<keyword id="18531580" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="moon-sniper" source="Orion">Moon Sniper</keyword>" mission, the successful test of the cow-dung-powered rocket engine presents a promising development for the country's space program and a potential solution to the global energy crisis.

A Japanese Start-Up Is Testing a Rocket Powered Entirely By Rocket Fuel Created From Cow Dung!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Monday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Environmental Defense Fund's MethaneSAT satellite.</li><li>The satellite will track leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas companies. </li></ul>SpaceX successfully launched a game-changing satellite on Monday. Called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-map-methane-leaks-world-can-see-2024-2">MethaneSAT</a>, the new satellite will track methane leaks from oil and gas companies worldwide.Methane is a critical driver of climate change. When it comes to trapping heat inside Earth's atmosphere, methane is over 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.Tracking methane leaks will help identify the most egregious emitters.<div type="image" title="MethaneSAT" height="2000" width="3000" msid="108218357" hostid="261" sizebytes="364986"></div>The Environmental Defense Fund developed MethaneSAT, and Google has partnered with the organization to create its first global methane map by the end of the year for all to see, ushering in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cop28-un-climate-conference-oil-and-gas-methane-emissions-satellites-2023-12">new era of climate accountability</a>."After a flawless launch, MethaneSAT is heading toward space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket," EDF <a target="_blank" href="https://vitalsigns.edf.org/methane-sat-updates">reported</a> on Monday. "The satellite is expected to be released from the rocket at 7:38 p.m. EST."<h2>Monitoring methane</h2>Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas linked to roughly a third of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-of-snow-america-midwest-warm-winter-skiing-climate-change-2024-2">human-caused global warming</a>.<div type="image" title="map of the world with oil and gas infrastructure highlighted in yellow" height="1548" width="2720" msid="108218358" hostid="261" sizebytes="339442"></div>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-zealand-proposed-taxing-burps-and-pee-from-farm-animals-2022-10">largest source of methane emissions</a> is agriculture. But the energy sector is a close runner-up, accounting for 40% of human-driven methane emissions.Monitoring this sector should be a priority, especially because cost-effective <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cop28-summit-dubai-uae-takeaways-ford-sustainability-head-2023-12">ways to reduce methane leaks</a> already exist, according to the International Energy Agency.<h2>A new age of accountability</h2>Tracking methane leaks in real time was impossible, until now. MethaneSAT's launch marks the beginning of a new age of accountability for the energy sector.It's just one of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellites-locate-source-of-methane-leaks-to-fight-climate-crisis-2022-7">a new wave of satellites</a> designed to zero in on methane gas sources around the world.With the same <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-openai-battle-triggered-moral-rift-in-silicon-valley-2024-3">AI technology</a> it uses to identify trees, crosswalks, and intersections from satellite imagery, Google will map oil and gas infrastructure.Then, the company will overlay MethaneSAT data onto the map to reveal where leaks are coming from.<div type="image" title="Map of a methane leak" height="1467" width="1782" msid="108218359" hostid="261" sizebytes="133742"></div>MethaneSAT should help oil and gas companies meet goals to drastically reduce methane leaks by 2030, according to EDF.At <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cop28-host-uae-broker-secret-oil-deals-climate-summit-bbc-2023-11">last year's UN climate summit</a>, the world's leading oil and gas producers promised to nearly eliminate their methane emissions this decade."We have consistently seen the power of strong data to win robust regulatory safeguards and better operating practices in the industry," said Mark Brownstein, EDF senior vice president of Energy Transition, in an EDG <a target="_blank" href="https://www.edf.org/media/methanesat-launching-today-groundbreaking-mission-protect-climate">press release</a>. "Good science lays the groundwork for better decisions."

SpaceX launched a satellite that Google will use to map methane leaks for all to see by the end of this year

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A global map of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sinema-proposal-methane-emissions-fee-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2021-11">methane emissions</a> reveals that <keyword id="13098504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pipelines" source="Orion">pipelines</keyword> release tons of the potent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supply-chain-crisis-causes-highest-carbon-emission-rate-since-2008-2021-12">greenhouse gas</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lightning-megaflash-over-us-south-is-longest-ever-recorded-2022-2">Satellite images</a> captured large <keyword id="12459827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="methane" source="Orion">methane</keyword> plumes from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-democrats-with-fossil-fuel-stocks-investments-2021-12">fossil-fuel</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/houston-based-oil-company-indicted-southern-california-oil-spill-2021-12">infrastructure</a> on a daily basis.</li></ul>A new map of global <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/methanes-warming-power-spurs-sustainability-solutions-in-agriculture-2021-10">methane</a> plumes reveals pipelines are spilling far more of the powerful pollutant — possibly twice as much — than countries are reporting.Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a heat-trapping capacity 30 times higher than carbon dioxide, even though it doesn't last as long in the atmosphere. It's one of the main gases driving global warming.An estimated one-quarter of humans' methane <keyword id="12152918" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="emissions" source="Orion">emissions</keyword> come from extracting coal, oil, and natural gas for fuel. Occasionally, the wells and pipelines that carry that fuel will experience a major leak.But a new planet-wide map, based on thousands of <keyword id="12292571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="satellite-images" source="Orion">satellite images</keyword>, reveals that fossil-fuel operations are secretly leaking far more methane than researchers thought, and they're doing it on a daily basis.<div type="image" title="satellite image show green methane plume in the southern united states" height="1874" width="2499" msid="89332853" hostid="261"></div>"We didn't realize initially that every day we would find these giant emitters around the globe," Thomas Lauvaux, a researcher studying greenhouse-gas emissions at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), who led the mapping effort, told Insider."It's leaking everywhere," he added, "and we're not doing a good job."Lauvaux led an international team of researchers to analyze two years of daily data from Europe's Sentinel-5P satellite, from 2019 through 2020. The view from space revealed 1,800 methane plumes. Most of these hotspots — 1,200 of them, primarily in the US and western Asia — are linked to fossil-fuel extraction operations, like oil and gas pipelines.<div type="image" title="world map shows oil gas pipelines with clusters of orange dots representing major methane emissions" height="4005" width="5341" msid="89332855" hostid="261"></div>"We thought it would happen once in a while, and they were very specific events in specific places, accidental mostly," Lauvaux said, adding, "Not at all. They're very systematic. They come back a lot along the infrastructure: pipelines and compressor stations and wells."He suspects that many of these methane plumes come from routine maintenance."They open the valves, and the methane and natural gas blow out, and in the meantime, they can fix whatever they have to fix," he said.Lauvaux's team consists of researchers from CNRS, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and the data-analytics company Kayrros. Their <a href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm1676">study</a> was published in the journal <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">Science</keyword> on Thursday.Based on this and a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22042020/permian-basin-methane-emissions-texas-new-mexico/">series</a> of <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c04117">prior</a> <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aar7204">studies</a> that have <a href="https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2474/Airborne-research-shows-East-Coast-cities-emitting-twice-as-much-methane-as-estimated">measured methane</a> at particular sites, Lauvaux roughly estimates that human activities could be emitting twice as much methane as governments report.<h2>The methane map is 'scary,' but it represents a big opportunity</h2><div type="image" title="yellow gas pipeline above worker in blue jumpsuit in snow" height="1549" width="2065" msid="89332856" hostid="261"></div>The methane plumes in the new map have a warming effect on Earth's atmosphere that's comparable to 20 million additional vehicles on the road for one year, according to the study."It's a little scary," Lauvaux said, adding, "Very few leaks are responsible for a huge amount of methane."But it also presents an opportunity: If governments and fossil-fuel companies stop these few major leaks, it will make a big dent in their emissions. It's low-hanging fruit, Lauvaux said, and stopping routine leaks could even save companies money.In the US, ultra-emitters could save $250 per ton of methane if they eliminate routine leaks, the researchers calculated.The US, Turkmenistan, Russia, and Iran are some of the biggest culprits on Lauvaux's map. He was surprised to find relatively few methane flares in oil states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq. He's not sure why — that's a subject for future research. Still, Lauvaux's team estimated that their map represents just one-tenth of the fossil-fuel industry's total methane emissions. These are just the biggest plumes, releasing more than 25 metric tons of methane per hour. There are surely many smaller plumes that the satellite can't detect.What's more, Lauvaux had to leave the Permian Basin — a major US gas field — out of his analysis, because the baseline methane levels there were too high to detect individual plumes."We have more work to do than we imagine," Lauvaux said, adding, "That's for sure."

Views from space reveal huge methane leaks in the US and Asia. They could be easy spots to cut emissions and save money.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President Joe Biden signed a pledge Tuesday to significantly reduce US <keyword id="12459827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="methane" source="Orion">methane</keyword> emissions.</li><li>Sen. <keyword id="11930702" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="joe-manchin" source="Orion">Joe Manchin</keyword> called the methane emissions proposal "an unreasonable, punitive fee."</li></ul>Democrats are struggling to salvage <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> provisions in the Biden administration's Build Back Better agenda, including a proposed fee on methane emissions that Sen. <keyword id="11930701" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kyrsten-sinema" source="Orion">Kyrsten Sinema</keyword>, D-Ariz., is currently questioning and undecided on, <a href="https://www.axios.com/sinema-methane-bbb-plan-spending-7fc8c6a8-76fa-475d-bb94-f303a036259a.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_content=politics-sinemaitics-sinema">Axios reported</a>.Additional members of Congress - Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Henry Cuellar, and multiple Texas Democrats - have outright opposed the fee, even as President Joe Biden joined more than 90 governments in signing a pledge to significantly reduce methane emissions at a global climate summit on Tuesday, <a href="https://www.axios.com/sinema-methane-bbb-plan-spending-7fc8c6a8-76fa-475d-bb94-f303a036259a.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_content=politics-sinemaitics-sinema">according to Axios</a>.Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has been fighting for the inclusion of a methane fee. He <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/11/01/democrats-pinning-climate-hopes-on-revised-methane-fee/">said in an interview with Roll Call</a> that he has been negotiating with Manchin, who called the proposal "an unreasonable, punitive fee" on natural gas and oil companies in a <a href="https://www.api.org/-/media/Files/News/2021/09/API-Methane-Fee-Opposition-Letter.pdf">September 7 letter</a> to Carpel and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va."We have designed it to not be punitive, but to be supportive and encouraging of companies to go ahead and begin making reductions within the next couple of years," <a href="https://www.axios.com/sinema-methane-bbb-plan-spending-7fc8c6a8-76fa-475d-bb94-f303a036259a.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_content=politics-sinemaitics-sinema">Carper told Axios</a>.In 2019, methane accounted for about 10% of all US greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, such as leaks from natural gas systems and raising livestock, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#methane">according to the Environmental Protection Agency</a>.Methane accounts for more than a quarter of the warming that Earth is currently experiencing and is the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions after carbon dioxide, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/us/politics/methane-emissions-fee.html">The New York Times reported</a>.If a methane fee is passed in the US, it could spur decades-long economic growth, add $250 billion to the country's gross domestic product, and create more than 70,000 jobs by 2050, <a href="https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Benefits-of-the-Build-Back-Better-Act-Methane-Fee.pdf">according to nonpartisan energy and climate policy firm Energy Innovation</a>.

Sinema, Manchin pump the brakes on a proposed fee for methane emissions, the second largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11965198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cows" source="Orion">Cows</keyword>' burps produce a lot of methane which accelerates <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword>.</li><li>A new face mask for cattle captures the burps and converts the methane into carbon dioxide and water vapor.</li></ul>An innovative face mask for cows, designed to reduce methane emissions and slow down climate change, has won a prestigious design award.The wearable device for cattle, created by UK-based design group Zelp, was one of the four winners of the inaugural Terra Cart Design Lab competition. <keyword id="11969343" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="prince-charles" source="Orion">Prince Charles</keyword>, who launched the competition as part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative, hailed the ground-breaking design as "fascinating" at an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2022/04/27/face-masks-cows-could-help-save-planet-one-burp-time/">The Telegraph reported.</a><div type="image" title="Zelp's cow muzzle" height="2397" width="3196" msid="91206343" hostid="261"></div>The design, a smart harness for cows, converts methane into carbon dioxide and water vapor. Cows expel significant quantities of methane, an odorless greenhouse gas, which is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.Achieving significant reductions in methane emissions would have a rapid effect on slowing down climate change, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane#:~:text=Methane%20is%20the%20second%20most,trapping%20heat%20in%20the%20atmosphere.">per the United States Environmental Protection Agency.</a>A single dairy cow can produce <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8567486/">up to 130 gallons of methane</a> per day. And their burps account for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-ap-top-news-mitch-mcconnell-climate-change-politics-9791f1f85808409e93a1abc8b98531d5">95% of a cow's methane emissions.</a> There are approximately <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/263979/global-cattle-population-since-1990/#:~:text=The%20global%20cattle%20population%20amounted,approximately%20996%20million%20in%202021.">one billion cattle worldwide.</a>Cows and other farm animals produce <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/i3437e/i3437e.pdf">about 14%</a> of human-induced climate emissions.In the past, solutions to the cattle industry's methane problem have involved changing cows' diets. Scientists proposed the mass production of a puffy, pink seaweed to combat climate change, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pink-seaweed-stops-cow-burping-and-could-cut-methane-emissions-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">Insider reported in 2019.</a>But Zelp's solution allows cows to digest typical food, with the mask working to detect, capture, and oxidize the methane in the cow's burps.A sensor at the tip of the masks detects when a cow exhales and the percentage of methane expelled, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pink-seaweed-stops-cow-burping-and-could-cut-methane-emissions-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T">WIRED reported.</a> The mask sets the oxidation mechanism into action when methane levels are too high.The mask also collects data on the animals to improve efficiency and animal welfare on farms, Zelp co-founder Francisco Norris told Insider."The Terra Carta will play a key role in helping us tackle the final design optimizations before we can produce our technology at scale, and we are confident that through the network that this initiative provides, we will be able to really advance our technology and to unlock its true potential," Norris said.Zelp received £50,000 ($63,424) in funding as part of the prize to help further develop the idea.

Burp-catching mask for gassy cows, designed to reduce methane emissions and slow down climate change, wins prestigious Prince Charles prize

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Groundwater springs belching methane have appeared close to Svalbard's retreating glaciers.</li><li>Scientists think the glaciers acted as plugs to contain methane reserves. </li></ul>Hundreds of groundwater springs have appeared in the Arctic, and scientists are worried they are belching vast amounts of ancient methane into the atmosphere. The springs were exposed by retreating glaciers in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-working-in-svalbard-visa-free-arctic-norway-2022-9">Svalbard</a>, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.Researchers at the University of Cambridge believe the methane is millions of years old, seeping out from a large reserve of underground gas. This suggests a lot of greenhouse gas could still be released into the atmosphere — something that hasn't been accounted for in existing climate models. <h2>The methane seems to come from ancient rock</h2><div type="image" title="Water bubbles with methane as it pierces through a sheet of ice. In the background are snow covered mountains of Svalbard." height="500" width="1000" msid="101579112" hostid="261" sizebytes="36224"></div>This isn't the first time scientists have found water spewing methane. In fact, there are lakes in Alaska you can set on fire. These are called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alaska-lakes-belching-damaging-methane-after-ice-melt-nasa-expert-2022-9?r=US&amp;IR=T">thermokarsts</a> and they appear when permafrost thaws.In the case of thermokarsts, however, the methane comes from microbes that grow in the meltwater. Scientists think the methane in the Svalbard springs comes from somewhere else. Researchers retrieved water from 123 springs in Svalbard between 2021 and 2022. In 122 of these, they found superconcentrated methane.Their analysis suggests this methane comes from reserves of gas spawning from shale rock underlying the glaciers. The findings were <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=5d55b3cac93ea853cba7d29ac434c8e1ff07fb6aa84f32d139facac02e3ead27&amp;postID=64a7e0b87e1bbd2ac665870b&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fnature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41561-023-01210-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> in Nature Geoscience on Thursday. "We have identified this previously unknown methane source up here in the Arctic," Gabrielle Kleber, an Earth scientist at the University of Cambridge and lead author on the study, told Insider.There's so much gas in the springs, the scientists were able to set them on fire just with a match:"It's shocking, it's scary," said Kleber."We drill into these icings and sometimes we just immediately get a lot of pressurized gas blowing out, very loud, it's a bit ominous," she said. <h2>A lot of methane could seep out if the Arctic continues to melt</h2><div type="image" title="Water bursts out of a spring in Svalbard." height="2486" width="3315" msid="101579113" hostid="261" sizebytes="517900"></div>The glaciers had been acting as plugs to trap the methane in ancient rock,. As their weight lifted from the bedrock, methane trapped deep in the ground made its way to the surface."We have a very large reservoir of organic carbon that actually is double the size of the current amount of carbon in the atmosphere trapped beneath glaciers and permafrost in the Arctic," said Kleber. "If these groundwater springs are tapping into that reservoir, they kind of have an infinite supply of methane behind them. If they can grow in number, grow in size, they can just keep supplying more and more methane to the atmosphere," said Kleber. The researchers estimate springs across the archipelago alone could represent about 2,000 tonnes of methane emissions a year.As of today, that's a drop in the bucket of global emissions. The global agriculture industry alone released about 141 megatonnes of methane in 2021, according to the <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2022/estimating-methane-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Energy Agency</a>.The problem is Svalbard may only be the canary in the coal mine."There are large regions in the Arctic that we suspect are seeing the same phenomenon. So if we extrapolate or expand this across the Arctic, the emissions could be considerable," said Kleber. <h2>Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and contributes to a feedback loop</h2><div type="image" title="A researcher is in a cave formed under the ice in the Arctic Svalbard glaciers. The person's shape is cast against the eery blue light filtering through the thin ice." height="1469" width="1958" msid="101579114" hostid="261" sizebytes="55032"></div>Methane emissions have been a hot-button issue in the fight against the climate crisis. That's because methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it keeps heat radiating from the ground trapped in the atmosphere instead of letting the Earth cool down.It doesn't get stuck in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide (CO2). But even if it doesn't accumulate for as long, it can cause a lot of damage because it's about 30 times more effective at trapping heat than CO2. "Reducing methane emissions is an important tool we can use right now to lessen the impacts of climate change in the near term, and rapidly reduce the rate of warming," Rick Spinrad, the head of NOAA, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/increase-in-atmospheric-methane-set-another-record-during-2021#:~:text=Methane%20in%20the%20atmosphere%20is,ruminant%20animals%20such%20as%20cows." target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously said</a>.<div type="image" title="A picture shows the view from inside a glacier cave in Svalbard, Norway." height="1500" width="2000" msid="101579115" hostid="261" sizebytes="157020"></div><h2>If confirmed, this could change climate models</h2>It's difficult to know how bad this problem could be because the research is very new. Climate models are struggling to keep up with the rate of melting of the Arctic, which is surpassing most predictions. Kleber suspects these methane emissions are only one of several "invisible feedback loops that we're just not aware of." "This feedback loop of melting glaciers, releasing methane could very likely be a contributor to that discrepancy in our, our large uncertainty in methane emissions, particularly in the Arctic," said KleberMore research is needed to confirm the origin of the methane and understand the scale of the problem across the Arctic, she said,"Ultimately we need to be addressing our anthropogenic emissions so that we can prevent these kinds of emissions from growing any further to the point where they are a global impact to our methane budget or our methane emissions," said Kleber.

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