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Scientists unveil methane munching monster, 100 million times faster than nature
(interestingengineering.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Technology
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Doesn't it get reduced in the athmosphere in about 5 years to mostly CO2?
Yes but the heat it retains in that time is 85x the effect of base CO2, which makes sense: decomposition of the methane releases energy. It does a much better job of reflecting the IR until it breaks down, then in the act of breaking down releases energy.
The atmospheric half life of methaine is just under 10 years. So if you release 1k lbs of methaine in 10 years there will be 500 lbs left 10 years after that ther will be 250 ect.
😡
1k lbs is a perfectly cromulent unit of enbiggenment, colloquially known as "Calebs".
Give me washing machines or give me death
Indeed that's 10 hundredweight. Which maybe ironically enough is rather intuitive for me, Germany still uses pounds and hundredweight (Zentner) in informal and sectorial use, meaning 500g and 50kg.
I believe that's 80 stone
Not a fan of kilopounds, klbs?
It's a good replacement for the heavy-fridge unit.
America is slowly switching to the metric system: metric pounds, metric feet, you know...
I mean, it’s more clear than 0.5 tons, since “tons” doesn’t specify US or metric. Not that it would matter in this specific instance.
But if it doesn't matter, what's the problem with tons?
It's complicated. The breakdown of methane in the atmosphere depends on hydroxyl radicals that are created at a regular rate. If you have more and more methane released, and/or you have other chemicals that also react with those radicals, the overall average half life will increase. Both those things are happening, so the old half life really isn't as accurate as it used to be. Guess which number the IPCC still uses for its models though.
Goddam Hydroxl Radicals keep sending drones to attack US ships! Iran needs an ass-kicking!
Guess i remembered wrong.