As we all know, the direct factor that triggers global warming is that the concentration of greenhouse gas contained in the earth's atmosphere is getting higher and higher. The reasons for this phenomenon are both natural and human factors. After human society entered the industrial revolution , as humans exploited and consumed traditional fossil energy, greenhouse gases represented by carbon dioxide have increased exponentially, promoting the increase of the overall temperature of the earth.
According to scientists, although the content of methane in the atmosphere is not as good as carbon dioxide, the per unit volume of methane contributes to of greenhouse effect , which means that the heat absorption capacity is about 80 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. Human activities such as fossil fuels, natural gas , agriculture and waste industry contribute more and more methane to the atmosphere. Therefore, understanding the hot spots of methane emissions can help scientists better understand the impact of human beings on climate warming.
In July this year, the US NASA installed an instrument specially used to monitor the source of mineral dust on the earth's surface on International Space Station. Its main function is to help scientists understand how dust affects climate change. Of course, it also has a "subfunction", which is to monitor the plume of methane in the ground and the corresponding upper atmosphere.
This observation project was originally intended to help researchers understand an atmospheric phenomenon that affects climate, namely, dust sweeping the world from the largest desert on Earth. These dust substances can capture or reflect heat, whether absorbed or reflected, depending on the chemical composition that makes up the dust. This instrument, assembled on the International Space Station, uses spectral or analysis of the light reflected by minerals to identify different dusty substances, and conducts targeted identification like fingerprints. Before that, no instrument in the world could do this.
Although this instrument can nominally provide scientists with a large amount of methane monitoring data for scientific research, judging from the many selfish behaviors pursued by the United States for many years, it is obvious that this instrument will inevitably provide "rhythms" for them to maximize their economic interests or even suppress other countries.
Indeed, after this instrument was launched, more than 50 "super emission sources" of methane were found around the world. These emission sources almost cover areas around the world, especially areas with huge oil exploitation such as Central Asia and Middle East , such as the oil and gas infrastructure east of Hazard, the port city of Turkmenistan, the waste treatment complex south of Tehran, the capital of Iran, etc.
These areas, especially those where oil is mined, leaks or evaporates some of the natural gas (main component of methane) that is associated with oil deposits, eventually forming a "methane cloud" with a huge coverage area and can strongly absorb heat, which stays on the earth for a long time.
However, what makes the United States feel "slap in the face" is that this instrument of the International Space Station has recently monitored a very large methane cloud over the US mainland, located over an oil field in southeastern Carlsbad, New Mexico. The diameter of this methane plume has a specific moment, which has exceeded 20 kilometers, and is larger than that of the Middle East and Central Asia. According to researchers, the total amount of methane emitted by the United States, Iran and , Turkmenistan, will reach 77,000 kilograms per hour.
Lenovo In recent months, the United States has been selling oil to Europe at a high price. Why does a giant methane cloud appear over the US mainland? There is no need to explain that you should be able to guess.It is very likely that this is they taking advantage of this "critical" time window to exploit oil desperately, and then sell it to European countries that are under the turmoil of "hunger and cold". At this time, they still care about the environment, climate change and global warming. Making money is the first priority. Anyway, they have already had a "retreat", after all, they have withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Although methane lasts less than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it can last for decades, and more and more man-made activities (inadvertently, and deliberately) are increasingly discharged into the atmosphere by methane with a greenhouse-effect capacity of more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide. If this trend is not changed, especially for countries like the United States that consume energy first in the world, if they are still self-righteous, the process of responding to global climate change and global warming will undoubtedly be stretched longer and longer, and may even end in failure.
