Methane

Can We Tame the Methane Monster?

#Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a major contributor to the climate crisis. Many jurisdictions, however, are using outdated accounting methods that vastly underestimate methane’s impact. Further, the fossil fuel industry has created momentum for the use of greenwashing technologies like “blue hydrogen.” Host Raya Salter speaks with Professor Bob Howarth to discover what science is revealing about the true threat of methane, and how New York State is innovating on methane policy with the recently passed 'Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act'.

Dr. Bob Howarth is the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University. Dr. Howarth is a biogeochemistry and ecosystem scientist. His research laboratory works broadly on human alteration of element cycles in coastal marine ecosystems and watersheds, and also works on the environmental consequences of energy systems, particularly from oil and gas development. Dr. Howarth is also a member of the NYS Climate Action Council, which is tasked with developing the plan for NY to reach its nation leading climate goals. Bob works on policy domestically and internationally and was pivotal in helping NYS devise its GHG regulations.

Host Raya Salter is a climate and energy attorney, educator and activist. She is an adjunct professor of law at Cardozo Law School and the author of the book “Energy Justice” (2018). She is also a member of the New York State Climate Action Council. She is @ClimateAuntie on IG and her web site is www.RayaSalter.com.

Melt Down at the Poles - COP26

Polar ice sheets are critical to maintain ocean currents, temperature, and salinity. Only if they stay frozen can we prevent sea level rise, intense storms, and disruption of the Jet Stream and major ocean currents. #PeterWadhams, pre-eminent polar scientist, explains how brightening marine clouds with tiny particles from sea water to reflect the sun’s heat could keep the arctic frozen. #PaulBeckwith, physicist, talks about both poles, permafrost, as well as the importance of #phytoplankton. Hosted by Dale Walkonen.

Methane: The Climate Monster

The AR6 recognizes that the release of Methane, a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than CO2 over the first 20 years, poses an extremely serious threat. #DaphneWysham, #PeterWadhams and #PeterFiekowsky describe both the nature of the threat, and the possibilities for mitigation.

Stored below the melting permafrost, emitted by cows and other ruminants, seeping from manure pits and landfills, rising into the atmosphere from fossil fuels, and emitted by wetlands, rice paddies and fish farms, it is a monster we must control. As the oceans warm and expand, more methane seeps up from the depths where it has been stored for millennia. Hosted by Dale Walkonen, the experts on this COP26 panel present a variety of plans to capture and to slow the release of human-caused methane.

Arctic Apocalypse

The #Arctic is nearing the tipping point. The world's leading polar scientist, Dr. Peter Wadhams, headed to Greenland to study actual conditions there. He expects the #BlueOcean Event, when the summer ice melts completely, to occur much sooner than anticipated, probably in the next year or two. The blue water will absorb more of the sun's heat, further warming our planet, and the Jet Stream, which balances weather in the northern hemisphere, will be disrupted.

Cooling our Overheating Planet

The planet is heating at an alarming rate. We need to raise the albedo, reflect the Sun’s heat,
draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and reduce acidity in the oceans. It’s a tall order. Peter Wadhams and Ye Tao argue the case for different methods of geoengineering, and for restoring the acid/base balance in the oceans.

Peter advocates both #MarineCloudBrightening and Direct Air Capture, while Ye’s #MEER reflection project works with mirrors, particularly on farms, where increased shade would save water and cool crops in the escalating heat and droughts to come.

Both Peter and Ye recommend farming #oysters and using their shells to recover the acid/base balance of the ocean, while host, Dale Walkonen, recommends ending industrial animal agriculture. These solutions would be very powerful in restoring Earth’s natural systems, both on land and in the sea.

Can We Mitigate a Methane Burst?

Beneath the #Arctic, a vast amount of #MethaneHydrate has been safely locked away. But the ice is thawing fast, and methane, 84 times more potent than CO2, is seeping out. If it reaches a tipping point, the release of a huge amount of that gas will cause a spike in the already dangerous heating of the atmosphere. Can we prepare for such a catastrophic event?

Peter Fiekowsky thinks so. He and Peter Wadhams discuss an exciting method of enhancing the natural oxidation of methane with Iron Chloride, which is explained fully in Fiekowsky's book, #ClimateRestoration, The Only Future that will Sustain the Human Race.
Funding this life insurance for the planet is critically needed if we are to avert disaster.

For more about the Climate Restoration Safety and Governance Board:
https://www.crsgb.org/
To order Climate Restoration, The Only Future that will sustain the Human Race:
https://www.peterfiekowsky.com/

For Peter Wadham's Ted Talk and Book:
https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_wadha...
https://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Ice-R...

Glaciers: Slip Sliding Away

#Glaciers cool the planet and provide freshwater from yearly snowpack for billions of people and ecosystems. But in the Himalayas and the Alps, ice loss is accelerating as glaciers shrink. Rapid melting has led to #avalanches and flash floods, which exacerbated the heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan in 2022. At the same time, both poles are losing ice mass at an unanticipated rate.

Professors Detlef Stammer, Director of the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability at the University of Hamburg and Peter Wadhams, Emeritus Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University share their findings about our disappearing glaciers, and some of the measures that are being taken to try to save them.

Earth Ablaze

The evidence is all around us. Our industrialized civilization is taking us into an unlivable future. Every continent is affected by the fever we have inflicted on our planet. The gravity of the climate emergency is clear.
Even as the crisis hits the United States and Europe - #MauiFires, Midwest hailstorms, hot tub ocean temperatures in Florida, Italian cities on red alert, Spain in drought, extended #HeatWaves- mirroring what's been happening in the global south, political action is still not happening. What will it take for world leaders to stop subsidizing extinction? And what do the next decades portend?

In this program,
Peter Carter, the director of the #ClimateEmergency Institute, and co-author of Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival
and
Paul Beckwith, Climate System Scientist and Professor of Climatology, Meteorology, and Oceanography at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University
look at this question and explain why getting off fossil fuels is essential to our survival.

The Critical Balance: Land Use and Food Systems

To preserve the fabric of #Biodiversity, critical changes in how we manage and interact with complex land based systems are needed if we are to avoid triggering more climate tipping points.
Better food systems are needed to take into account the wide range of complex interactions that affect the biosphere. We must work with nature, rather than against it.
The Amazon region, a vital component of the living Earth system, is in danger of becoming savannah and has largely lost its ability to sequester carbon due to logging and agriculture, principally cattle raising, which damages the ecosystem.
The preservation of peatlands requires a delicate hydrological balance. If too wet, methane is emitted, but if drained, peat emits carbon dioxide. #Permafrost melt is a threat to these fragile ecosystems.

Recorded November 16, 2024 at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan

Hosted by #NickBreeze , Journalist
and author of COPOUT, How Governments have Failed the People on Climate
with
Karen Silverwood-Cope, Climate director for Brazil at the World Resources Institute (WRI),
Dr Heiko Baltzar, Professor, University of Leicester and
Principal, Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People.

Peril at the Poles

As polar glaciers thaw, greenhouse gases sequestered in permafrost for thousands of years are being released at increasingly alarming rates. The exposed #Permafrost emits Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide, the two latter being far more potent than CO2.

A major Atlantic ocean current, the #AMOC, is showing signs of slowing down. If it shuts down, climate systems will be radically disrupted. Paul Beckwith and Peter Wadhams discuss the situation in the Arctic and in #Antarctica with host, Dale Walkonen.