> sure methane is more short lived
I don't know that this is helpful at all since it either burns or degrades to CO2, and is a significantly worse greenhouse gas before then.
I don't know that this is helpful at all since it either burns or degrades to CO2, and is a significantly worse greenhouse gas before then.
However, global anthropogenic emission of methane is about 300 Tera-grams per year [1]. Anthropogenic emission of CO2 is about 35 Giga-tonnes per year.
300 Tera-grams is 0.3 Giga-tonnes
300 Tera-grams of CH4 degrades in about 10 years into about 0.5 Gigatonnes of CO2. About 1.5%, one sixtieth of the CO2 problem which can last hundreds of years. Methane emissions present 10-15% of the immediate and near term problem - thats less than half, less than a quarter... seriously, its about an eighth. After 10-15 years the elimination of methane, eliminates about a sixtieth of the global warming emissions problem. This will be why the IPCC presents CO2 as the major issue, because they do find and show that it is.
[1] (Table 1) http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/roypta/369/19...
There are many sources in broad agreeance for these heavily researched measurements. I included one recent source for methane emissions by weight, since its a bit harder to dig that up.
Then there's also the eco system aspect. The environments surrounding the reserves have unique organisms. What's going to happen with that? Just because we don't see it, it doesn't seem to matter..