THE GROWING DISASTER OF METHANE LEAKS BOTH MANMADE AND NATURAL.

Using satellite data, scientists say they have documented some 127,000 metric tons of methane ejected in the Karaturun East oil field in 2023, when a fire there lasted from June to December. That amount of methane is equal to emissions from 791,318 fossil fuelled powered cars being driven over a year, per the Environment Protection Agency website’s calculators. Methane is estimated to have around 28 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. It also accounts for 30% of the world’s rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution. This is replicated in thousands of other aging wells worldwide and then nature plays its role with climate warming. The amount of methane released into the atmosphere annually by livestock and the production of fossil fuels has been extensively researched. Quantifying emissions from natural wetlands is crucial to anticipating climate change, notwithstanding the uncertainty. Wetland methane emissions are predicted to rise as a result of temperatures in Boreal and Arctic ecosystems rising at a rate that is roughly four times faster than the global average. However, the precise amount of this increase is difficult to determine because it has been challenging to monitor emissions in these large, frequently wet environments up until this point. As frozen soils thaw and more precipitation falls in the form of rain rather than snow, higher temperatures boost the microbial activity of methane-releasing bacteria located in saturated soils and expand the region with water-logged soils where these microorganisms thrive. For this reason, methane emissions should have grown in these higher-latitude locations, as predicted by experts, and it is imperative that methane be quantified more precisely.