The Environmental Protection Agency has been telling us that emissions of methane, a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, have fallen about 10% since 2002. But a new scientific paper says that man-made methane emissions have not only notfallen, they have increased significantly, by more than 30%.
This should be a big story, but it’s one that the legacy media will be sure not to cover.
This news comes not long after it was learned last fall that China had been under-reporting its coal consumption by 20% and therefore likely putting out much more CO2 and other greenhouse gases than previously thought.
Given all these extra emissions that we didn’t know about, shouldn’t Earth have reached an unbearable temperature by now instead of going nearly 20 years without warming? Shouldn’t the higher atmospheric levels of methane, 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2, be cooking us? Why haven’t all those frightening scenarios of the oceans flooding coastal cities and civilization breakdown become reality?
At the Paris climate meeting, Obama pledged to “reduce our emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels within 10 years from now.” But that goal is going to be harder and more painful to reach now, given what we’re learning about the true level of emissions. It will require more restrictions and a heavier government hand, and it could get ugly if officials are determined to enforce the Obama promise. Even before the news about methane, meeting Obama’s goal was going to require “additional strong measures” beyond those already considered, our friends at the Cato Institute say.
The proper response to these reports would be to acknowledge that emissions have increased but not caused the problems predicted, so therefore the entire global warming argument needs to be rethought. But the alarmist community is unlikely to examine these facts and reach a logical conclusion. It will stay on its narrow track until it runs out of rail, all the time wondering what happened to all that warming.
