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This is the letter for week 32 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents to see topics for all the strike letters, see this story.
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
because if you think CO2 is bad, wait till you see what CH4 does.
That’s why this week’s topic is METHANE (aka CH4).
What is methane?
Methane (CH4) is the simplest alkane, composed of one carbon atom single-bonded to 4 surrounding hydrogen atoms. It has a molecular mass of 16 g/mol compared to dry air’s 29 g/mol, and is the main component of natural gas. It has an atmospheric life of 10-12 years compared to CO2’s life of up to 200 years, but is 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas (GHG) than CO2 over a 20-year period.1 Atmospheric methane has risen from 722 ppb in pre-industrial times to 1866 ppb in 20192, putting it at its highest value in at least 800,000 years.3 There is an estimated 1,400 gigatons of carbon in methane in the permafrost4 and between 500 to 2500 gigatons of carbon in methyl clathrates in the ocean5; for comparison, humans have to date released 356 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and cement production since the start of the industrial era.
For a chem-to-English translation of the above paragraph: Alkanes are hydrocarbons, meaning they can be burned to release the energy stored in the bonds between the hydrogens and carbon. Methane is a small hydrocarbon and lighter than air, so human activities using methane allow it to readily escape into the atmosphere. It is relatively short-lived in the atmosphere, but when it breaks down it degrades into CO2 that is not short-lived. We are pouring methane into the atmosphere, and are in immediate danger of raising the climate and ocean temperatures enough to release a tsunami of additional methane.
So just how much of a problem is methane?
- CH4 + 2CO2 → CO2 + 2H2O (Combustion of CH4 produces CO2.)
- CO2 and CH4 are GHGs (as is atmospheric water).
- CH4 leaks. A recent study found that the emissions from leaks in Baltimore, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Providence, and Washington D.C. were larger than the EPA reported leaks for the entire country.6
- California has 564 identified super-emitters of methane. These are places leaking methane at a rate of 0.618 teragrams per year, or 34-46% of the state’s methane inventory for 2016.
- 41% of the super-emitters are landfills. 26% are oil and gas infrastructure. 26% are dairies.7
What actions must SF take regarding methane?
We have to eliminate methane from SF as fast as possible. This means:
- No gas stoves or heat (either air or water) in any infrastructure being planned or under construction, and elimination/replacement of all infrastructure using methane already in place.
- Zero new landfill waste and making sure our older landfills are not leaking.
- Work with SF’s dairy and meat providers (farms as well as stores) to reduce dairy methane emissions8, and promote a reduction in dairy and beef in SF.
- Divest from all fossil fuel and gas companies.
- Invest in renewable energy production.
- Decommission all methane or other gas pipelines in SF.
What’s the timeline for action?
We are still increasing the amount of methane being dumped into the atmosphere every year. If we aim to eliminate 90% of all methane produced by SF in ten years, we have to start acting immediately. Because if things heat up enough that the frozen methane is released into the atmosphere, the outcome will be very very bad.
59 weeks left.9
FOOTNOTES
1. Jennifer Leman. “What Is Methane, Anyway?” Popular Mechanics. 29 Aug 2019. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a28858699/what-is-methane/.
2. Ed Dlugokencky. Global CH4 Monthly Means. Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division, NOAA. 05 Nov 2019.
3. Summary for Policymakers. IPCC’s AR5. 2013. http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf.
4. Methane and Frozen Ground. National Snow and Ice Data Center. 2019. https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/frozenground/methane.html.
5. Alexei Milkov. Global estimates of hydrate-bound gas in marine sediments: how much is really out there? Earth-Science Reviews. Vol 66, Issues 3-4. Aug 2004. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825203001296?via%3Dihub.
6. Molly Enking. Natural gas leaks are a much bigger problem than we thought. Grist. 24 Jul 2019. https://grist.org/article/natural-gas-leaks-are-a-much-bigger-problem-than-we-thought/.
7. Riley Duren, Andrew Thorpe, Kelsey Foster, Talha Rafiq, Francesca Hopkins, Vineet Yadav, Brain Bue, David Thompson, Stephen Conley, Nadia Colombi, Christian Frankenberg, Ian McCubbin, Michael Eastwood, Matthias Falk, Jorn Herner, Bart Croes, Robert Green, Charles Miller. California’s methane super-emitters. Nature. 06 Nov 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1720-3.
8. Lynda Searby. Seaweed slashes methane production in first live study with cows. Feed. 09 Jul 2019. https://www.feednavigator.com/Article/2019/07/09/Seaweed-slashes-methane-production-in-study-with-cows.
9. Based on the 2018 IPCC report that world emissions need to peak by 2020 in order to change our path from 3°C (or more) increase to 1.5°C. There are only 420 gigatons of CO2 remaining to be used in total before we pass that goal. And this goal only give us a chance of not shooting beyond 1.5°C.