Methane Release Increases Because of Supply Chain Plumbing Leaks

Outside  Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks, AK in March, 2005. Methane there is continuously outgassing from the melting permafrost.

Today, methane - the chief component of natural gas - accounts for one fourth of global warming. Given the nasty effects of methane (it has more than 20 times the forcing factor of CO2)  one would have thought humans would take more care in not releasing any more than already estimated from natural events. (Themselves of anthropogenic origin).

In the latter case, I refer to the Nov. 26, 2013  issue of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, in which the authors warned that the Arctic Ocean is releasing methane at a rate more than twice what existing scientific models predicted.  Natalie Shakhova and Igor Semiletov at the University of Alaska- Fairbanks' International Arctic Research Center - after a decade spent researching the Arctic's greenhouse gas emissions- have found this unexpected result.

Shakhova, the lead author of the report, in an interview post-publication, warned the methane release rate iwa likely even greater than their paper describes.  In an interview describing the work in The Fairbanks News Miner, she said:


" We decided to be as conservative as possible. We’re actually talking the top of the iceberg.” 


The researchers focused on the continental shelf off the northern coast of eastern Russia - the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Underlying this region is sub -sea permafrost. When the permafrost melts, the methane can be released. For example, the submerged East Siberian Arctic Shelf contains much of the same stored carbon as the dry tundra to the south but also at least 17 teragrams of methane. (One teragram is equal to one million tons).

The vast carbon stores in the Arctic are also protected by the layer of sub-sea permafrost, but the new research shows it's in danger of disappearing.   Core samples taken of the sub-sea permafrost by  Shakhova et al show now the temperatures are near the freezing mark (30-32F)  Meanwhile, both the top and lower levels of sediment have already thawed. (Some climate modelers had previously suggested this wouldn't happen for five to seven thousand years.)

Shakhova added

"What we’re observing right now is much faster than what we anticipated and much faster than what was modeled,”

The consensus carbon budget estimates that more than half of carbon emissions are human-caused, but these estimates vastly underestimate the amount of carbon stored in the Arctic shelves, 

According to Shakhova:

“I believe strongly the Arctic sources are understated and need to be paid more attention,”


What is even more sobering now is the recent finding that humans are inadvertently releasing even more methane.  We are talking about unburned methane which leaks from wellheads, processing plants and pipelines all along the natural gas supply chain.  For the first twenty years after it's released into the atmosphere it is 84 times more potent  than CO2 as a global warming gas.  Thus, even small amounts leaked into the atmosphere can negate any advantage natural gas has over other fossil fuels.

An independent study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund found the industry could cut methane emissions 40 percent or more  for less than a penny per 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas produced by leaky valves and by properly maintaining pumps and other devices.. As one EDF investigator Mark Brownstein put it:

"It's largely a plumbing problem. And plumbing is dead simple".

In response, the White House - to its credit- announced a goal of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry to nearly half of 2012 levels by 2025. Which is totally practical - as well as economical.

Nevertheless, no less a lard head and nincompoop than James Inhofe (R-OK), blasted the plan for "imposing a mandate designed to stifle our domestic energy industries."

Actually no, lamebrain. It would in fact conserve more natural gas resources the same as turning off faucets conserves water wastage. But then maybe Inhofe is as much a proponent of wasted energy as he is the dimwit notion that global warming is a hoax.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry insists voluntary control are sufficient. Yet fewer than 30 of 6,000-plus oil and gas operators across the nation have taken steps to lower their emissions..

Indeed, IF voluntary measures worked we wouldn't need federal standards or "mandates".

Thankfully, the EPA this summer will propose regulations for emissions of methane from new and modified oil and gas sources.

It's about time, because we are already flirting with catastrophe and a runaway greenhouse effect given the cavalier attitude of too many-  especially posturing right wing fools like Jim Inhofe.

Toxic Nation: Maybe we Have Little Choice

I've blogged on the pervasive use of chemical toxins in this country before, and more recently how the more widespread use may be linked to everything from genetic damage to aggressive prostate, liver and breast cancers. For sure, the anomaly of American males in their 30s being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer (Gleason score of 8 or higher) may be directly linked to their inhabiting a chemical toxic sea - most of whose components they know nothing about.

Right now, indeed, I am writing this amidst a toxic 'brew' in my own home, as a result of exposure to resins, acrylic acid (e.g. http://www.epa.gov/ttnatw01/hlthef/acrylica.html ) etc. from having a downstairs shower pan replaced and resurfaced. Yes, the thing looks fantastic after the replacement, but the toxins released - which we are now trying to expel using a high-powered fan, maybe not so much. (Don't blame me, btw, it was wifey's idea to refurbish the thing as it "looked too grungy". I guess maybe she figures we may have guests coming at some point to use it!) The point is, in this country there is almost no escaping the toxic stew, which accompanies everything from a simple bathroom shower floor redo, to pest and weed control and even handling DVDs (laden with bisphenol A).

Even oldish toxins can lay in wait and affect the most innocent among us, kids - who may have nothing to do with pesticide spraying or renovating showers. The CDC estimates that in at least  4 million households in the U.S. today children are still exposed to dangerous amounts of lead from old paint that produces dust every time a nail is driven into a wall to hang a picture, a new electric socket is installed, or a family renovates its kitchen. It estimates that more than 500,000 children ages one to five have “elevated” levels of lead in their blood. (No level is considered safe for children.) Studies have linked lost IQ points, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, dyslexia, and even possibly high incarceration rates to tiny amounts of lead in children’s bodies.

Sadly, when it came to the creation of America’s pervasive chemical stew, the lead industry was hardly alone. Asbestos is another classic example of an industrial toxin that found its way into people’s homes and bodies. For decades, insulation workers, brake mechanics, construction workers, and a host of others in hundreds of trades fell victim to the disabling and deadly lung diseases of asbestosis or to lung cancer and the fatal cancer called mesothelioma when they breathed in dust produced during the installation of boilers, the insulation of pipes, the fixing of cars that used asbestos brake linings, or the spraying of asbestos on girders.

Despite growing medical knowledge about its effects (and increasing industry attempts to downplay or suppress that knowledge), asbestos was soon introduced to the American home and incorporated into products ranging from insulation for boilers and piping in basements to floor tiles and joint compounds. It was used to make sheetrock walls, roof shingles, ironing boards, oven gloves, and hot plates. Soon an occupational hazard was transformed into a threat to all consumers.


What’s inside the new walls of your new home might be even more dangerous. While the flame retardants commonly used in sofas, chairs, carpets, love seats, curtains, baby products, and even TVs, sounded like a good idea when widely introduced in the 1970s, they turn out to pose hidden dangers that we’re only now beginning to grasp. Researchers have, for instance, linked one of the most common flame retardants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, to a wide variety of potentially undesirable health effects including thyroid disruption, memory and learning problems, delayed mental and physical development, lower IQ, and the early onset of puberty. Other flame retardants like Tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate have been linked to cancer. As the CDC has documented in an ongoing study of the accumulation of hazardous materials in our bodies, flame retardants can now be found in the blood of “nearly all” of us.


Is this the end of it? Dream on! Lurking in the cabinet under the kitchen sink, for instance, are window cleaners and spot removers that contain known or suspected cancer-causing agents. The same can be said of  any cosmetics (including lotions- linked to hypospadias in male infants) in your bathroom,  or of your plastic water bottle or microwavable food containers.

As for Bisphenol A (BPA), the synthetic chemical used in a variety of plastic consumer products, including your DVDs, some baby bottles, epoxy cements (now wafting through my home) Sarah Vogel of the Environmental Defense Fund has written: “New research on very-low-dose exposure to BPA suggests an association with adverse health effects, including breast and prostate cancer, obesity, neurobehavioral problems, and reproductive abnormalities.”

Do we care? Maybe we do, but inhabiting a techno-civilization where these chemicals are so abundant and  intimately woven into our lives means there's little we can do to control them. Toss out all your DVDs? Hardly likely! Tell my wife no more bathroom renovations like this last one, unless harmless chemicals are employed? Even less bloody likely! Demanding wifey use a newspaper to kill that large 6" diameter arthropod over there as opposed to spraying RAID? Even less probable!


So, in the end, we swim amidst all these toxins, use them - in so far as we have to - then cross fingers and just hope to hell we don't get to be the one stuck with liver, prostate, breast or kidney cancer.....or some awful respiratory disease.