A faster and cheaper way to cool the earth planet

Forget thinking about carbon emission only. If we want to control global warming, cutting methane could do wonder to cool the planet.

During the month of December 2009 around 190 countries met at Copenhagen to discuss one of the most important issues of Global Warming. Here carbon dioxide emission was considered as the main culprit leading climate change. But reversing global temperature increases by reducing carbon emissions will take many decades, if not centuries. Even if the largest cuts in CO2 contemplated in Copenhagen are implemented, it simply will not reverse the melting of ice already occurring in the most sensitive areas, including the rapid disappearance of glaciers in Tibet, the Arctic and Latin America.

So what can we do to effectively curb global warming? The most obvious strategy is to make an all-out effort to reduce emissions of methane.

Methane, also k.a. "other greenhouse gas (GHG)," is much responsible for warming as it has potential 21 times of carbon dioxide and stays for a decade only not unlike carbon dioxide, which remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Methane's short life makes it especially interesting in the short run, given the pace of climate change.

In order to preserve glaciers we need to suppress temperature quickly, reducing methane can make an immediate impact. Compared to the massive requirements necessary to reduce CO2, cutting methane requires only modest investment. Where we stop methane emissions, cooling follows within a decade, not centuries. That could make the difference for many fragile systems on the brink.

Methane is one of six Green House Gases (GHG) targeted by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. It represents only about 15% of the projects under the Kyoto Protocol's emissions offset program. Methane also forms ozone, the smog that severely damages food crops and kills tens of thousands each year by worsening asthma, emphysema and other respiratory diseases.

Captured methane gas can be used as a clean energy source, contributing to energy security and diversification as well as reducing damaging black carbon (soot) and CO2 emissions. Solving the methane problem will lead to a higher quality of life by cleaning up city and agricultural wastes and odours, and curbing air pollution from dirty stoves and local industries.

It will also create local jobs in construction and operation of methane-abating equipment. Methane comes from a variety of sources: landfills, sewage streams, coal mines, oil and gas drilling operations, agricultural wastes, and cattle farms. For most of these sources, relatively cheap "end of pipe" technologies are available to collect methane and convert it to useful energy rather than venting it to the atmosphere.

These technologies include drilling into coal seams before mining to release and collect methane (this also reduces the risk of mine explosions, which kill hundreds of miners per year); depositing manure into "biogas" digesting tanks where pipes collect methane produced from decomposition; and covering and lining open landfills, shunting methane into a collection pipe. In most cases, the collected methane can be used to replace liquid fuel to run a small power plant. Several towns like Noida have open drainage system which continuously keeps adding the GHG emissions in form of Methane. We need to cover all the open nulhas and adopt Engineered Landfill methods. Govt must make it mandatory to contain and make use of produced Methane as fuel to replace higher potential liquid fuels in all the cities and towns in India. This effort would ensure and encourage the pollution mitigation efforts and waste free working environment.
We need to continue efforts to reduce / control the planet's temperature. Methane is the most effective GHG for us to begin with in addition to other GHG emission like CO2.