Methane is 8 times more Powerful as a Greenhouse Gas Than Carbon Dioxide
It's been some time since 'Paranoid Times' first appeared but sadly failed to launch in print after we found ourselves indirectly affected by a national crisis - the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001! Several years passed, we worked on silently, watching, reading, researching, monitoring, writing and publishing on behalf of others... but now the blog is finally going to become a reality.
Ready, steady, GO!
I spotted the title to this blog while scanning through the fourth edition of the MoD's Strategic Trends Programme, "Global Strategic Trends - out to 2040" (.pdf link to the document) earlier today and it prompted me to kick off The Paranoid Times on the subject of global warming and climate change. After all, we do seem to be getting more weather nowadays, don't we?
The basic premise (of global warming, not the film) is that planet earth is warming up and if this trend continues it spells the ultimate destruction of our little planet and everything upon it - absolute catastrophe, Armageddon, the end!
Holes in the Ozone Layer!
About forty years ago we were all warned of 'holes' in the ozone layer that envelops our planet. The swirling mass of otherwise deadly ozone was being polluted and destroyed by CFC gases and other ozone depleting substances (ODS). Put simply, aerosols, solvents and my old friends the halogens were contributing to the atmospheric pollution that was harming the ozone layer. This planetary cloak protects earth from ultraviolet rays from the sun, so the thinner the shield gets, the more UV light penetrates and with that could come the potential for increase in skin cancers, eye problems and even failing crops, such as rice. The Montreal Protocol was introduced and then the ozone problem seemed to gradually be swept under the media carpet.
21st Century Beliefs - Blame Carbon Dioxide
According to the Ministry of Defence, "a scientific consensus holds that a large part of this warming is attributable to human activities, primarily through increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases." Not only that, the use of the definite article in their statement that "climate change WILL affect the land, the atmosphere and the oceans". But...
Methane is 8 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide
If the above is true, and it has to be true because this is from a Government document, then we should be working out how to avoid methane production, or else capturing that and turning it into something safer - like carbon dioxide and water? You can see the problem here... we have reports of crumbling coastlines, rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, unpredictable weather, freak storms and it's all being blamed on us mere mortals.
So what is Methane?
This brings to mind one Benjamin Franklin and his 'flammable air'! The origins of the spark that lit the first marsh gases and probably led to the great gas revolution that brought natural gas to millions of homes... At the same time, we have approaching 60,000,000 people in Britain alone and for almost every household, there is household waste. That waste ends up going into landfill, which gets taxed, and the landfills create more methane. (And some people still blame cows for belching so much of the stuff that they could kill the planet!)
Billions upon billions of pounds have been spent developing technologies to keep the majority of the great British public happiest in their homes - I say 'the majority' because that is all that counts on a national scale - for the good of all would take more than a Government, it would take a real miracle! Now multiply that up into a global scale and try to get all those countries co-operating and working towards a common goal. We are decades, possibly even centuries away from that! Inequality exists everywhere and few can simply disappear under the radar on the 'green thing' because no Government will permit total loss of control of its people.
Total self-sufficiency does not exist in Britain.
We need to be part of the machine and we need to power it using an alternative to gas or fossil fuels - that's what the Government's 'green deal' is about, after all, isn't it? With or without global warming, fluctuating ozone layers, rising sea levels and uncontrollable weather systems, there is a limit to how much we can do. But how much of the truth do we actually know and how much is still out there? And if methane is 8 times as dangerous than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse, then why are millions of pounds, water and other substances being pumped in fracturing the ground for gas? Is there any grain of truth in the possibility that there is an alternative reason for why this gas needs to be released?
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