The disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991 had far-reaching social, political, and economic repercussions globally. One of the unexpected outcomes was a potential impact on the reduction of human-generated methane emissions. Until around 1990, methane levels in the atmosphere had been steadily increasing. Scientists speculated that the economic collapse in the former USSR resulted in decreased oil and gas production, leading to a slowdown in the global methane levels, which eventually resumed.
“Methane exhibits perplexing trends that we have yet to fully comprehend,” explained senior author Alex Turner, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at UW. “One particularly intriguing trend is the slowdown in 1992. Surprisingly, we discovered that the collapse of the Soviet Union seemingly led to an increase in methane emissions.”
While carbon dioxide is more significant than methane in long-term global warming, methane plays a crucial role in the short term. A single molecule of methane has greater heat-trapping capabilities than CO2, and its atmospheric half-life is just a decade, allowing for fluctuations in its levels.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, methane levels experienced a rapid increase. Turner’s previous research indicated that reduced driving and, consequently, fewer vehicle emissions containing reactive nitrogen (an air pollutant) likely contributed to this rise, as pollution was no longer able to combine with methane molecules to remove them from the atmosphere.
The new study delves into a long-standing mystery: the sudden deceleration in the rise of methane concentrations in the atmosphere in 1992.
2024-03-12 23:51:03
Original from phys.org