Methane Continues to Rise to Dangerous Levels

Global methane levels have been unexpectedly rising since 2007.Until this day the scientific community at large has been unable to determine the exact cause. In mid-May, Colorado US Representative, Diana DeGette, introduced the Methane Waste Prevention Act. The bill is a modification of the Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Waste Prevention Rule and the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry which were both implemented during the Obama administration, to offset and regulate the amount of methane being admitted on US soil. Read More.

Many have wondered if methane has been increasing since 2007, why is it all of a sudden getting so much attention. The Bank of Canada, the financial institution that creates a safe and stable monetary policy for all of Canada, has just deemed  global climate change a financial vulnerability. Read More.  Methane contributes to global warming. It contributes to a fourth of the total atmospheric warming. To fully understand the impact methane a comparison can be made to carbon dioxide, as studies show that it traps 86 percent more heat. This is alarming when there are many theories swirling over why it has been increasing. Read More.

To combat this growing crisis The California Energy Commission has given a US$6 Million dollar grant to Berkley Lab to try to determine “super emitters” of methane. Berkley Labs has sought out the help of: 2017 IEEE N3XT Star Bluefield, who recently enhanced their radiometric & geometric calibration algorithms which enables detection of smaller emitters and with greater certainty, Stanford University, UC Riverside, the Central California Asthma Collaborative, and Scientific Aviation. SUMMATION will utilize a “tier approach” which allots for several different approaches and scales for data collection. If the sources of methane can be quantified then it may be possible to determine the cause of the overall increase. Read more.