From the course: 34 Things to Know about Carbon and Climate

Methane is more powerful than carbon dioxide

From the course: 34 Things to Know about Carbon and Climate

Start my 1-month free trial

Methane is more powerful than carbon dioxide

“

- Methane, a significant output of meat and dairy farming, has 84 times carbon dioxide's potential for trapping and heating the air over a 20-year period. - Okay, there's meth and chemistry here. Please bear with me. It will take less than a minute. Cows give off methane. So do other things, like certain elements in the natural gas pipeline system. But cows give off a lot of methane. How much methane? Well, each cow is busy farting, but mostly burping, all the time, and that's methane. And here's the thing about methane. Methane, for the first 20 years, it's in the atmosphere, then it breaks down. But for the first 20 years, methane is 84 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is. 84 times as much. That's why it's a problem.

Contents