Hill Heat: Atmospheric methane continues to rocket up at record ratesScience Policy Legislation Actiontag:hillheat.org,2005:TypoTypo2022-04-10T15:24:33-04:00Brad Johnsonurn:uuid:3429213f-8f52-485c-9a05-31792920617d2022-04-08T13:34:00-04:002022-04-10T15:24:33-04:00Atmospheric methane continues to rocket up at record rates<p><img src='/files/ch4_trend_all_gl_20220405.jpeg' style='float:right;margin-left:10px;width:40%' />Atmospheric methane continues to rocket up at record rates, <span class="caps">NOAA</span> <a href='https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/increase-in-atmospheric-methane-set-another-record-during-2021'>reported</a> yesterday. As fracking booms, methane levels increased by 17 parts per billion in 2021, breaking the 2020 record of 15.3 ppb. Concentrations of this powerful greenhouse pollutant are now 162 percent of their pre-industrial levels, as the Biden administration pushes for <a href='https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-european-commission-announce-task-force-to-reduce-europes-dependence-on-russian-fossil-fuels/'>more natural gas production and export</a>.</p>
<p>I will take this moment to remind readers that the <a href='http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2022/02/23/the-epa-is-undercounting-methane-pollution-by-77-percent'><span class="caps">EPA</span> is undercounting methane pollution by 77 percent</a>.</p>
<p>The essential Kate Aronoff <a href='https://newrepublic.com/article/166031/democrats-gas-prices-oil-companies-drilling'>castigates the incoherence</a> of Democrats in Congress who claim to care about the climate crisis begging oil CEOs to increase fossil-fuel production, instead of acting to <a href='https://www.americanprogress.org/article/as-energy-prices-skyrocket-congress-must-return-the-oil-and-gas-industrys-windfall-profits-to-the-american-people/'>take their billions in windfall profits</a> and stop their greenhouse pollution:</p>
<blockquote>Appealing to these CEOs’ better angels is pointless. Although they hand fossil fuel companies billions in subsidies each year, American policymakers mostly confine themselves to begging or berating them into doing what they want.</blockquote>
<p>As Adam Tooze writes in his <a href='https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n22/adam-tooze/ecological-leninism'>review of three recent books</a> by Andreas Malm:</p>
<blockquote>To harp on the climate crisis while doing nothing about it is, in the long run, intolerable. Liberals’ failures make Trump look honest. He may deny the science, but at least he’s true to himself.</blockquote><p><img src='/files/ch4_trend_all_gl_20220405.jpeg' style='float:right;margin-left:10px;width:40%' />Atmospheric methane continues to rocket up at record rates, <span class="caps">NOAA</span> <a href='https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/increase-in-atmospheric-methane-set-another-record-during-2021'>reported</a> yesterday. As fracking booms, methane levels increased by 17 parts per billion in 2021, breaking the 2020 record of 15.3 ppb. Concentrations of this powerful greenhouse pollutant are now 162 percent of their pre-industrial levels, as the Biden administration pushes for <a href='https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-european-commission-announce-task-force-to-reduce-europes-dependence-on-russian-fossil-fuels/'>more natural gas production and export</a>.</p>
<p>I will take this moment to remind readers that the <a href='http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2022/02/23/the-epa-is-undercounting-methane-pollution-by-77-percent'><span class="caps">EPA</span> is undercounting methane pollution by 77 percent</a>.</p>
<p>The essential Kate Aronoff <a href='https://newrepublic.com/article/166031/democrats-gas-prices-oil-companies-drilling'>castigates the incoherence</a> of Democrats in Congress who claim to care about the climate crisis begging oil CEOs to increase fossil-fuel production, instead of acting to <a href='https://www.americanprogress.org/article/as-energy-prices-skyrocket-congress-must-return-the-oil-and-gas-industrys-windfall-profits-to-the-american-people/'>take their billions in windfall profits</a> and stop their greenhouse pollution:</p>
<blockquote>Appealing to these CEOs’ better angels is pointless. Although they hand fossil fuel companies billions in subsidies each year, American policymakers mostly confine themselves to begging or berating them into doing what they want.</blockquote>
<p>As Adam Tooze writes in his <a href='https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n22/adam-tooze/ecological-leninism'>review of three recent books</a> by Andreas Malm:</p>
<blockquote>To harp on the climate crisis while doing nothing about it is, in the long run, intolerable. Liberals’ failures make Trump look honest. He may deny the science, but at least he’s true to himself.</blockquote>