
Global Methane Emissions Reach a Record High - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/methane-emissions-record.html
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merricksb
Discussed a few days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23857433](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23857433)

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maxekman
Thanks for linking to the past discussion, the climate crisis needs as much
attention as it can get! Let’s all try to limit our footprint and put pressure
on the governments and companies to change.

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pfdietz
Instead of (or along with) controlling emissions, how about increasing
removal?

Methane is primarily removed from the atmosphere by reaction with reactive
free radicals, like hydroxyl.

We could increase the oxidizing power of the troposphere by releasing low
concentrations of chlorine gas. Dilute Cl2 in strong sunlight is rapidly (in
about 10 minutes) broken into chlorine radicals, which react very quickly with
hydrocarbons, extracting a hydrogen atom to make hydrogen chloride.

The amount of chlorine that would be needed to be released to counter
anthropogenic methane emissions would be roughly the amount currently being
made by the global chloralkali industry.

I see some issues that would have to be addressed: releasing the chlorine in
such a way that it starts dispersed enough that local toxicity isn't a
problem, and such that very little makes it to the stratosphere; acidification
from the HCl; oxidation of atmospheric Hg(0) to the much more toxic Hg(II)),
but at first glance these don't seem to be showstoppers.

The interaction of Cl with other tropospheric chemistry might be an issue. For
example, it might reduce production of OH, but doing the release in cooler
areas might avoid most of that. And it might also reduce tropospheric ozone
and perhaps even destroy nitrous oxide, another powerful persistent greenhouse
gas.

Taken to a limit, one might also imagine stripping almost all methane from the
troposphere, including natural inputs. This would cause a negative greenhouse
forcing. Not enough to counteract increases in CO2, but every little bit
helps.

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jeffbee
Reinventing acid rain has a bit of a “modest proposal” vibe.

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raxxorrax
We could also burn all our plastics, the toxicity would be manageable if done
correctly. But you really need to work on the presentation when bringing these
things up.

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beamatronic
If you take these projections to their logical conclusion, all you can really
do is live for today. Spend time with your loved ones. Hug them and tell them
you love them. Sit in the sun. Have that extra piece of cake.

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eloff
I think you're letting the alarmist journalism alarm you too much.

This is still a slow motion train wreck. It won't affect your life much
depending on where you live. Your children and your grandchildren might well
be less lucky.

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i_haz_rabies
I'm assuming the median age here is ~30... 40-50-60 years is a long time.
We're going to see some shit.

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eloff
How much did we see in the last 150 years? Not that much to be honest. It's
not linear, but the predictions call for 0.5C - 1C rise over the next 50
years, which is about what we've already experienced. It's not really going to
bother us that much, unless you live in very specific vulnerable areas like
low-lying flood plains or very low islands.

Hundreds of years from now it could snowball into something that causes mass
extinction and global famine. Not to mention it would force us to migrate away
from all the coastlines where many of our cities are - that's a lot more
serious, but we'll all be dead.

Unfortunately I think this is a big reason why it's so hard to get governments
to take action on climate change.

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HPsquared
I think it's just going to continue getting out of control until someone
decides enough is enough and they start doing solar radiation management.

Space sunshades, sulphur aerosols, etc. etc.

