methane

Methane is a colorless, odorless, natural gas. It is not poisonous or toxic, but it is very flammable. This last characteristic is what makes it such a popular energy resource.

The Past:

Methane has always been one of the "global warming" gases. It has been ever present in the atmosphere; however, it seems to be building in recent centuries. Methane has the potential to affect global warming even more than carbon dioxide.

The Present:

Methane is used as an automobile fuel and is said to be more "green" and environmentally friendly than gasoline and diesel fuels.

The Future:
One of the more exciting uses of methane is in the realm of space travel. Because most other planets contain at least some methane (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), the methane could potentially be harvested and utilized for rocket fuel. The methane on the other planets could be used for the return trips back to Earth. We just need to learn how to better harness this natural resource.

Bloggers speaking about methane can be found at sites like carbonfund and planetary.

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Original Technorati articles tagged “methane”

• in Green
  Dealing with the Rise of the Greenhouse Gas Jokers
  The worrying rise of two climate wildcards - methane and nitrous oxide - is flagged in the latest Bulletin from the WMO
  by wyrdways / on Nov 22, 2011
• in Green
  Bugs Ready to Munch on Climate Time-Bomb
  Scientists have defrosted microbes from the Artic's permafrost soils,and found their gases pose a real global warming hazard.
  by wyrdways / on Nov 7, 2011
• in Politics
  Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident may not Sabotage the World Energy Needs
  The world should not exit nuclear energy but draw lessons from Fukushima Daiich disaster and strengthen nuclear safety
  by chicksmore / on Jul 8, 2011

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “methane”

 

• Soot: a Better Way to Stop Global Warming

  
  Triple Pundit — Authority: 609
  Most efforts to slow the impact of global warming have focused on reducing carbon emissions, because it is the largest component and, according to the EPA, the most dominant and the fastest growing greenhouse gas. But CO2 is only one of several greenhouse gases. A team of scientists suggest that an easier and possibly ...
  2 days ago

• How Landfills Can Provide Electricity

  
  Triple Pundit — Authority: 609
  Landfills can be used to provide electricity or heat, which will prevent 60 to 90 percent of the methane released by waste from entering the atmosphere.
  3 days ago

• Shale gas isn’t a ‘clean bridge fuel’, study finds

  
  Michael Vacirca - Geek. Nerd. Hilarious. — Authority: 141
  There has been a lot of fuss lately about shale gas , which has become increasingly important in the past decade, particularly due to hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), a modern technique used to extract it from the underground. Many have proposed natural shale gas as a supposedly clean bridge fuel, fit to address ...
  1 week ago

• Fracking in Bulgaria

  
  Robert Kyriakides's Weblog — Authority: 110
  Bulgaria depends almost wholly on Russia for its fuel for energy. It uses natural gas which is piped through the Ukraine, giving Bulgaria the double insecurity of energy supplies. First Russia may decide not to supply natural gas and secondly the Ukraine might decide to turn off the pipeline. That energy insecurity ...
  1 week ago

• Methane,soot new focus

  
  SMOKINCHOICES (and other musings) — Authority: 115
  Global-warming talk focuses on methane, soot By Seth Borenstein ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — An international team of scientists says it has figured out how to slow global warming in the short run and prevent millions of deaths from dirty air:    Stop focusing so much on carbon dioxide . They say the key ...
  1 week ago

• 5 Easy Things You Can Do to Reduce Food Waste

  
  We Blog The World — Authority: 131
  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), reports that an estimated one-third of the food produced worldwide for human consumption is wasted annually. In the United States, an estimated 40 percent of edible food is thrown away by retailers and households. In the United Kingdom, 8.3 million tons of ...
  1 week ago

• Guest Blog: Rebecca Anderson

  
  Global Conversations: Climate Blog — Authority: 102
  Map showing high levels of dissolved methane in surface water (Courtesy of The Independent online) Rebecca Anderson is the Team Scientist for the Alliance for Climate Education .  Check out her biography and other blog post for us here . Watch out cows: the Siberian Shelf makes a lot of methane too! Over the ...
  1 week ago

• Ice Quake Movie Review

  
  Screenhead — Authority: 115
  Yesterday, we took a run at reality with a big … Read on →
  1 week ago

• Methane gas likely spewing into the oceans through vents in sea floor

  
  Climate Change: The Next Generation — Authority: 121
  Methane gas likely spewing into the oceans through vents in sea floor September 2, 2009 By Denise Brehm, MIT, Civil & Environmental Engineering Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the ...
  1 week ago

• Slow Global Warming, Improve Health, Boost Agriculture, NOW!

  
  Planetsave — Authority: 580
  NASA has released a study that highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that could slow the pace of global warming, improve health, and boost agricultural production if they were implemented. This Flickr slideshow highlights key emission control strategies that could help limit the release of black carbon ...
  1 week ago

• On carbon transport and fate in the East Siberian Arctic land–shelf–atmosphere system" by Igor P. Semiletov et al., ERL 7 (2012) doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/015201

  
  Climate Change: The Next Generation — Authority: 121
  Environmental Research Letters , 7 (2012) 015201; doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/015201 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/7/1/015201) On carbon transport and fate in the East Siberian Arctic land–shelf–atmosphere system Igor P. Semiletov [1,2,*], Natalia E. Shakhova [1,2], Valentin I. Sergienko ...
  1 week ago

• Google and Duke University Get Their Hands Dirty… With Hog Poop

  
  Gas 2.0 — Authority: 551
    Hog and pig poop is disgusting and there are tens of millions of these curly tailed animals in farms across the U.S. Pig manure has a high nitrogen content which makes for poor fertilizer, so the manure if commonly pumped into giant open pools where it releases tons of methane into the air. Yuck. Thankfully, ...
  1 week ago

• Mexico City Closes One of World’s Largest Landfills

  
  EscapeTheIllusion.com — Authority: 108
  By Tyler Falk. In an effort to build a greener waste management system, Mexico City has closed one of the world’s largest landfills, known as Bordo Poniente. The landfill, which was built to take rubble following a massive earthquake in 1985, now holds 76 million tons of garbage. Closure of the 927-acre landfill ...
  1 week ago

• Here We Go: Warmists Finally Going After Methane

  
  Pirate's Cove — Authority: 628
  They’re realizing that people aren’t buying into the “CO2 will kill us all!!!!!!1!!!!!” meme anymore, considering the Earth had 15 years of warming followed by 15 years of stagnant temps, despite increases in CO2. And that we keep being treated to Warmists falsifying the data. So, time to look elsewhere ...
  1 week ago

• Simple, cheap measures could reduce global warming and save many lives

  
  ZME Science — Authority: 494
  An international team of scientists showed that simple, inexpensive measures to cut emissions of two common pollutants will significantly slow global warming, boost crop production throughout the world and save many lives in the process. The climate change debate is traditionally centered around carbon dioxide ...
  1 week ago

• The danger of farting in space

  
  Impact Lab — Authority: 128
  Space gas has its consequences.Humans produce two flammable gases: hydrogen and methane. Flammable gases accumulate in an enclosed space and can ignite. Astronauts are humans who spend lots of time in enclosed space. The logic is irrefutable. So, what’s the risk to farting astronauts?Between 1968 and 1971, ...
  1 week ago

• New computer model shows Titan atmosphere more Earth-like than thought

  
  InvestmentWatch: Emerging markets, Real Estate, Personal finance, Business management, Politics, Economics — Authority: 148
  (PhysOrg.com) — Two scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris have built a computer model that simulates the atmosphere on Titan, one of Saturn’s sixty two moons, and as a result now believe that Titan has two different atmospheric boundary layers, the lower of which appears to ...
  1 week ago

• Scientists Say World Attention on Wrong Climate Pollutant

  
  Environment Blog — Authority: 117
  What if, in our quest to stop man-made climate change, we are focusing on entirely the wrong pollution? That’s what a team of scientists lead by NASA suggest this week with a new report on methane and soot. The Associated Press reports: “An international team of scientists says it’s figured out how to slow ...
  1 week ago

• Arctic methane outgassing on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Part 1. The background

  
  Climate Change: The Next Generation — Authority: 121
  Arctic methane outgassing on the E Siberian Shelf part 1 - the background by John Mason, Skeptical Science , January 15, 2012 Reports of extensive areas of methane - a powerful greenhouse gas - bubbling up through the shallow waters of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) have been doing the rounds in the ...
  2 weeks ago

• Scientists Say Cut Soot, Methane to Curb Warming [If at first you dont succeed...]

  
  InvestmentWatch: Emerging markets, Real Estate, Personal finance, Business management, Politics, Economics — Authority: 148
  An international team of scientists says it’s figured out how to slow global warming in the short run and prevent millions of deaths from dirty air: Stop focusing so much on carbon dioxide. They say the key is to reduce emissions of two powerful and fast-acting causes of global warming — methane and soot. Carbon ...
  2 weeks ago

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