A US study showed that children born within a mile or two of a gas well were likely to be smaller and less healthy. High levels of methane reduce the amount of oxygen breathed from the air, with health consequences. And still the Coalition pushes its fracking plans for the nation.
Several of the large mass extinctions of species in the geological past are attributed to an increase in atmospheric methane (CH4), which raises the temperature of the atmosphere and deprives the oceans of oxygen.
Nowadays, the accelerated release of methane from melting Arctic permafrost, leaks from ocean sediments and from bogs, triggered by global warming, is posing a serious danger to the atmosphere and for the life support systems. But as if this was not dangerous enough, methane is now extracted as coal seam-gas (CSG) by fracking (hydraulic fracturing) of coal and of oil shale in the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
Methane-bearing formations, about 300 metres to 1000 metres underground, are fracked using a mixture of water, sand, chemicals and explosives injected into the rock at high pressure, triggering significant amount of methane leaks into the overlying formations and escaping into the atmosphere.
CSG is made primarily of about 95-97% methane, which possesses a radiative greenhouse potential close to 80 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). The radiative greenhouse effect of 1 kilogram of methane is equivalent to releasing 84 kilograms of CO2 and decreases to 20 and 34 times stronger than CO2 over a 100-year period.
Global methane deposits and Australian methane-bearing basins are proliferating. Fugitive emissions from CSG are already increasing the concentration of atmospheric methane above drill sites and range from 1 to 9 per cent during the total life cycle emissions. The venting of methane from underground coal mines in the Hunter region of NSW has led to an atmospheric level in the region of 3,000 parts per billion, with methane levels of 2,000 ppb (parts per billion) extending to some 50 kilometres from the mines. Peak readings higher than 3000 ppb represent an amalgamation of plumes from 17 sources. The median concentration within this section was 1820 ppb, with a peak reading of 2110 ppb. Compare this with mean methane values at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, of 1884 ppb.
Fugitive methane emissions occur from natural, urban, agricultural, and energy-production landscapes of eastern Australia. The chemical signature of methane released from fracking found in the atmosphere points to shale gas operations as the source.
The accumulation of many hundreds of billions of tons of unoxidized methane-rich organic matter in Arctic permafrost, methane hydrates in shallow Arctic lakes and seas, bogs, and as emanated from cattle and sheep, has already enhanced global methane growth over the past 40 years at rates up to 14 ppb/year.
The current methane level of 1884 ppb, ~2.5 times the <800 ppb level in 1840AD, indicating a mean growth rate of ~7 ppb/year is attributable in part to animal husbandry, permafrost melting, release from marine hydrates and bogs, and in part emissions from shale gas and fracking, as in the United States and Canada.
High levels of methane reduce the amount of oxygen breathed from the air, with health consequences. The toxicity of methane is corroborated in a 2018 study in Pennsylvania showing children born within a mile or two of a gas well were likely to be smaller and less healthy. New York State, Maryland, and Vermont have banned fracking, as have France and Germany.
According to Hansen (2018) reserves of unconventional gas exceed 10,000 GtC (billion tons of carbon). Given the scale of methane hydrate deposits around the world, sufficient deposits exist to perpetrate a global mass extinction of species on a geological scale.
Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleoclimate scientist.
Comments
12 responses to “A “gas-led recovery” leads to dangerous atmospheric methane”
Has close similarities to The Final Solution only it is by Angus Taylor.
Very sobering to read and also very well explained.
Thank you Andrew. This should be on the front page of every newspaper. Most people still have no idea of how the various sources of methane combine to make it a very concerning greenhouse gas. Especially as conditions warm up where we will see a tipping point when vast quantities of it will be rapidly released. Its only redeeming factor is that it lasts in the atmosphere for less time than CO2, but the sheer volume that can potentially be released means that it could be added to the atmosphere for many more years ahead.
The most worrisome thing is that when you look at the media, it is like business as usual is all that people are dreaming about, and they are not being prepared in the least for the changes we will face. Even if we stopped all emissions now it we would still be headed for roll on effects and thus very difficult and possible catastrophic times.
People are living such a dream that to present them with the facts often draws comments like “you must be a pessimist”. Yet the information, especially about how scientists now conclude that it is happening faster than originally predicted, are there for all to see. Many just do not want to know.
Thanks George.
And yet our species is called “Homo sapiens” … !
Well our long history as a species is one of remarkable survival and partitioning ourselves from the rough edges of natural selection. But in the end we may very well be the ones that damage our natural environment to the point that we can no longer survive, and the fundamental natural laws that still govern this planet will have the last laugh.
Thanks George.
Human destructive behavior commenced mostly as civilization emerged, a mere 7000 years ago, when the stabilization of the Holocene climate, abundance of food and smelting of metals allowed the construction of cities and monuments, assembly of armies and other atrocities to take over (Climate, Fire and Human Evolution, Glikson and Groves 2017. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319225111)
Thank you, I’ll read your reference
Many thanks for the compliment George.
My E-mail is geospec@iinet.net.au. If you send a message to my E-mail address I will be able to send you a PDF of the book/s.
Andrew
30-1-2021
Hi Andrew
I just wanted to let you know that I sent you an email several days ago but I have not received a reply. I understand you may have been busy, but I wonder if my email may have gone into your spam folder or if it was screened out as spam via a server along the way.
Hi George
I did not receive an E-mail from you. In so far as it may have gone to my “Junk folder”, for a reason which I do not understand the junk folder is “blocked” …?
Perhaps try again (geospec@iinet.net.au) or ring me at 02 6296 3853.
Andrew.
I have tried another send. My email is wendellsaysitall@mail.com
Will give you a call if this doesn’t work
Thanks Andrew, just to let you know that have received your email with attachment in case the email I sent you as a reply goes into the spam box again.
I’ll be in contact again, it would be good to chat with you some time to thank you in person, and share more thoughts on this exceedingly important topic.
Andrew I think people should know that you are on Youtube as well, you have such an important story to tell. I’m absolutely stunned by your background in research, and the field you are interested in concerning the connection between anthropology, human cultural and technical development, leading to where we are with climate change today – your book is a must read. It also brings a plurality of scientific disciplines together in such a way as to deliver a very step by step experience as to how we got here and from when.
What is going on in this country when people like Craig Kelly get more coverage of their limited thinking compared to a distinguished and deeply experienced academics like yourself?
We are living under a veritable kakistocracy.