It falls off, but it’s not like it’s gonna fall off to zero. It’ll react with oxygen in the atmosphere to form water and CO2—mostly CO2 by mass, because methane is about 3/4 carbon by mass.
Comment on US joins in other nations in swearing off coal power to clean the climate
crimsonpoodle@pawb.social 9 months agoWhile methane is worse it’s worth noting that it doesn’t stay the atmosphere for as long; so if we stopped producing the fall off in warming would be a lot steeper; so theoretically if we assume that eventually renewables will take over there would be an optimal ratio between the longer term but less damaging CO2 and the more damaging but short term Methane. But all that is driven by economics not science so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 9 months ago
BrainisfineIthink@lemmy.one 9 months ago
YES, methane stays in the atmosphere a shorter duration as methane, but most of it naturally breaks down into CO2 which then stays in the atmosphere just as long as all the other CO2. It is much worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.