As we often remind readers, methane has a highly acute global warming potential – methane has 20-30x the warming potential of CO2 over a hundred-year time span, pound for pound.
There is plenty of disagreement about how much methane might be emitted under possible warming scenarios, and there’s disagreement about whether significant changes in Arctic methane emissions are plausible at all, but it’s a risk no less.
Ocean acidification
In a recent piece covering climate tech company Planetary Technologies, we discussed how ocean alkalinity addition could accelerate carbon removal. The ocean is already one of the world's best carbon sinks; by some measure, it's removed and sequestered 40% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. The more carbon we force the ocean to absorb, the worse it gets at performing the same function. The carbon removal the ocean performs on its own depends on its surface water remaining relatively balanced. Ocean acidification, accelerated by global warming and the ocean's uptake of carbon, reduces the ocean's ability to act as a massive remover of carbon.
Beyond those listed above, general ecosystem degradation and loss loom as climate change feedback loops. Whether it's wildfires ripping through forests or peat bogs – some of the Earth's biggest carbon sinks – drying out, many of the Earth's best existing carbon stores are in danger. Plus, there are many more feedback loops worth exploring, and some scientists are just beginning to understand. We focused on a few appreciable examples here that are far from exhaustive. I got more ideas from my Twitter followers, too.
The net-net
Investments in hardware that will take longer to develop and may offer deep emissions reductions or removals in 10 or 20 years are critically important. But emissions reductions or removals today help prevent the compounding effects of climate change, which accelerate because of the types of feedback loops explored above.
That's why immediate emissions reductions and removals, when possible, are so necessary. Within a sector like carbon removal, it's why I like businesses like Nori, which has already removed 85,000+ tonnes of CO2.
It's also why focusing on low-hanging fruit opportunities to reduce emissions, whether they lie in concentrating on methane, e.g., by changing methane gas flaring practices or elsewhere, are extremely valuable.
Finally, in my opinion, climate feedback loops make a case for pragmatism in climate tech. If natural gas really does offer emissions reductions relative to coal, then perhaps it is a good 'bridge' fuel for the next ten years. I'm not sold on how much better natural gas is than coal when methane emissions leaks enter the picture, but I offer that as an illustrative example.
