The greatest contributing factor to global warming is Methane?

Question

I have read that the single greatest contributing factor to global warming is methane gas, the majority of which is produced by decaying plant matter in asian rice paddies, not from the industrialized west. Is this true?? If so why isn't Gore & Co. demanding they develop alternative food sources???

Answer 1

There are different ways in which you can claim different chemicals are the main cause of global warming.

Methane is one because it's ability to absorb reflected radiation (i.e. to continue trapping heat after it has passed through the Earth's atmosphere) is much greater than carbon dioxide's, by a factor of about 30, I believe.

In real terms, carbon dioxide is really the chemical (besides water vapor) that has the greatest OVERALL effect. While a quantity of carbon dioxide has a lesser effect than an equal quantity of methane, there is so much more carbon dioxide than there is methane in and being added to the atmosphere.

If you really want to know, this is how it really stacks up in terms of overall contribution to increased global warming (taking into account heat trapping effectiveness, rate of addition to the atmosphere, current amount in the atmosphere):

CO2: 50%
CH4 (methane): 18%
N2O (nitrogen dioxide): 6%
O3 (ozone): 12%
CFCs: 14%

Water vapor, however, is actually the most prominent greenhouse gas. While it is a poor heat-trapping chemical relative to CO2, there is so much of it that it is mostly responsible for the greenhouse effect (but not increasing global warming).

Now, back to this methane thing. By the source's definition (as far as I can tell), its the chemical that has the greatest heat-trapping effect compared to CO2 that is the biggest contributer to global warming. If this is the case, then CFCs are the biggest contributers (in terms of chemicals that actually have a significant presence in our atmosphere). While methane is around 30 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat, CFCs are around 25000 times more effective.

Lastly, rice-paddies are by no means the largest source of methane. No. Freaking. Way.

Rice (and most other plants) emit mostly unsaturated hydrocarbons, meaning they contain a C=C double bond. This more or less rules out methane, as it is a saturated hydrocarbon. The idea that rice paddies emit lots of methane comes from the fact that methane-producing microbes thrive in the boggy, warm waters in rice paddies. These, however, are already being dealt with. In a number of parts of Asia, most specifically China, rice-farming methods are being (and have been) changed and refined to significantly reduce methane emissions from the paddies - using fertilizers, flooding less frequently, et cetera. Additionally, when the paddies are dry, or at least not flooded, they act as methane-sinks, reducing the methane concentrations in the air. All up, rice paddies constitute only about 8% of global methane emissions (higher citations - as much as 20% - are often made, but about 50% of methane emitted from paddies is destroyed before reaching the atmosphere), so out of the 60% of emissions that are believed to come from man-made sources that's about 13%. A few other points also:
Who else do you think consumes the rice produced by the Asian/Indian paddies? The west, of course.
These poorer countries have virtually no other alternatives in terms of a major food source due to the mostly monsoonal climate. While wealth would provide the possibility to import many of these countries don't have that wealth.

No, the biggest sources of methane on the planet are the meat and dairy industries, and landfill. And they are most definitely the responsibility of the West. Animal agriculture is responsible for about 28% (in real terms, unlike the figure of 20% for rice paddies) of man-made methane emissions.

Something else that is interesting to note: Al Gore comes from a family that has traditionally farmed cattle - one of the biggest man-made sources of methane. Why do you think methane wasn't targeted in An Inconvenient Truth, or at any other point, then?

Answer 2

Global warming is where solar energy heats the Earth more so due to reflections from the atmosphere than by the sun alone. The process is called radiative forcing. Solar energy reflected up from the surface strikes certain chemicals in the atmosphere that appear reflective to this energy and return down to the surface. The chemicals are termed greenhouse gasses. Without this process Earth's temperature would be much lower and likely would not support life as we know it. The term greenhouse effect is kind of silly. The greenhouse effect is the reflecting of energy. An actual greenhouse functions by blocking convection. Water vapor is the most prominent greenhouse gas. It accounts for 2% of the atmosphere compared to CO2 accounting for only .04% and is more reflective. Thus water vapor is responsible for around 70% of the atmosphere's greenhouse effect. Other gasses such as CO2, methane, and ozone are also greenhouse gasses and contribute to this greenhouse effect. Virtually all of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are from natural sources. The greatest sources of CO2 are volcanoes, decaying organic material, and forest fires. Only about 3% of the CO2 in the atmosphere results from human activity and the use of fossil fuels. CO2 is increasing at a rate of 1 molecule per 100,000 per year from human causes, hardly worth mentioning. The driving force behind global climate change is the sun. Following the discovery and correction of an error in the NASA GISS data in August of 2007, the warmest year on record was 1934, not 1998 or 2005 as some had claimed. And new data shows a distinct cooling trend since 2002, in line with solar activity. Oceans hold 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere. Much of the scientific community now agrees that it is not an increase in CO2 that causes the Earth to warm but that warming of the Earth causes increases in CO2, or a little of both. Measured temperature increases appear predominantly at the surface and not in the atmosphere as would be expected if radiative forcing were driving the increases. The process of global warming is true. A catastrophic human caused climate change is completely false.

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Answer 3

I'll answer this, but by your tone, you sound more like you're trying to make a statement than to get a question. I'll preface this by saying I'm not taking sides, except the side of science. These are facts, interpret how you will.

Ok, the two largest greenhouse gasses (CO2 and CH4) are carbon compounds in the air. Where does that carbon come from? Well if you want to cite the methane coming from decaying plant matter, that's fine. But where did those plants get the carbon?
All plants (small exception of carnivorous plants like venus flytraps, etc) gain all their carbon from the atmosphere. So anything released by their decay is re-releasing carbon that was in the atmosphere.
However, oil wells and underground natural gas reserves are just that: underground. That is carbon that has not been in the atmosphere for millions of years, instead, it's been trapped underground.
So to dig up those sources and then put that carbon into the air, in either methane or CO2 form, is to add to the number of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

Answer 4

It's true that methane gas contributing a lot to global warming ,for the effect one gram methane gas contributes to global warming is about five times of one gram CO2,but because we produce much more CO2 than methane gas ,so the greatest contributing factor to global warming should be CO2.America and China produce the most CO2 in the world ,they should be responsible for global warming.

Answer 5

Methane is not the greatest contributor to global warming, but it is more harmful to the atmosphere. The CO2 levels are much higher.

After the Methane is released into the atmosphere, through soil erosion, permafrost thawing (melting), or cows farting, it will eventually turn into CO2 (takes many many years). This is why methane is so harmful to the atmosphere, because it stays for so long and is more effective in changing the climate.

They actually have government scientist working on the issue of cows and their contribution to the atmosphere.

Answer 6

There is lots of methane gas being produced and its efficacy or effect on the climate is larger by the gram compared to other gases. But methane production is also natural and has been going on for as long as the Earth has been. Production of other more dangerous gases have only happened in the last century, and really these are the more dangerous ones.

Also dont forget the methane produced by cow dung in producing Big Mac.

Answer 7

it can be because methane turns co2 in some time. i guess industrialization contributes more than methane. in fact, there are studies that methane can be a alternative source of energy. co2 has more degrading effects compared to methane. just try to know their effects in this site and decide if methane is still a big contributor

Answer 8

In terms of all global warming then the biggest contribution comes from water vapour. This gas is almost exclusively produced by nature through the process of evapouration and accounts for approx 1% of the atmopshere by volume. The specific amount in the atmopshere is determined by pressure, temperature (and humidity), the minumum atmospheric concentration is virtually nil and the maximum is 4%. The contribution it makes to total global warming is between 37 and 63% (because it's so variable and because of overlapping forcings it's not possible to be any more specific than this).

In terms of anthropogenic (human) global warming than it's carbon dioxide which is the biggest contributor. There are four gases that between them account for 99% of the human contribution* to global warming and seven gases that between them account for 99.9%, they are...

Carbon dioxide - 72.3%
Nitrous oxide - 18.4%
Methane - 7.9%
Dichlorodifluoromethane - 0.9%
Trichlorofluoromethane - 0.2%
Tetrafluoromethane - 0.1%
Trichlorotrifluoroethane - 0.1%
All others (hundreds of them) - 0.1%

Methane is produced from rotting vegetation, rice paddies, peat bogs etc through the process of biomethanation or methanogenesis. Rice cultivation accounts for only a tiny proportion of the methane produced - less than 1%. The majority is through the decay of vegetative matter and industrial processes.

* Contribution is different to atmospheric concentration and 'potency'. Excluding water vapour, then carbon dioxide accounts for 99.4% of greenhouse gases by volume but by comparison to all other greenhouse gases (except water vapour) it's a weak gas. Atmospheric concentrations, forcings and global warming potentials of the main greenhouse gases are shown in this table http://profend.com/global-warming/pages/causes.html#12

Answer 9

That methane is a concern,but the bigger source of 'greenhouse' gas is the CO2 released from the use of fossil fuels. Don't listen to the fanatics that claim that Global Warming isn't man made.

Answer 10

Yes!!!

Methane is 23 TIMES as powerful as CO2! But you don't get a nobel prize for discovering that the earth warmed a degree in the past 100 years because of cow farts (methane).