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Today, greenhouse gases are the most

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commonly discussed environmental problem

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Greenhouse gases stay in the Earth's

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atmosphere and trap the UV radiation

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from the Sun. Increasing human population

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and activities since the Industrial

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Revolution have greatly increased the

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greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As

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more greenhouse gases are emitted more

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heat is trapped which leads to global

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warming

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This results in rising sea level

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spreading of disease, intensified natural

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disasters extreme weather and decreased

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human welfare. So what have you been

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taught is the most harmful greenhouse

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gas? Probably carbon dioxide. It's true

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that co2 is important to global warming

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as it represents 80 percent of total

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greenhouse gas emissions but there's

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another critical yet underrepresented

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greenhouse gas: methane. When we look at

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Google search results a search for

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methane produces about 500,000 results

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while co2 has almost three times as many

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with 1.4 million results. Why is that?

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Maybe because methane is less abundant

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in the atmosphere. Or maybe because

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methane's lifespan in the atmosphere is

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only 12 years while co2 may remain for

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centuries so methane does not appear to

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be a long-term problem. However these

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statistics do not mean that methane is

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less of a problem than co2. Compared to

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co2 methane is 84 times more potent

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meaning it's global warming effect is

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much stronger and while methane makes up

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only 10% of greenhouse gas emissions

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it's responsible for 33% of the

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temperature increase due to human

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activities

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What's more methane short lifespan means

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that a reduction in methane emissions

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would yield to a more immediate

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reduction of greenhouse gas in the

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atmosphere compared to co2

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this means that methane is in fact a

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problem that deserves more attention. Not

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surprisingly the U.S. is responsible for

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up to sixty percent of global methane

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emissions. Agriculture especially

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livestock and the oil and gas industry

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are the two biggest sources of methane

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emissions. In animal agriculture cows

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produce an abundance of methane during

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their digestive processes and although

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the transportation sector creates 13% of

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worldwide greenhouse gas emissions

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animal agriculture is responsible for a

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whopping 51% of overall emissions. Oil

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and gas are the other largest

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contributors to methane emissions. As a

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primary component of natural gas methane

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is emitted during its extraction, storage

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and distribution. Older cities like

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Boston have a big gas leakage problem

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due to the fact that more than half of

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the gas pipelines are over 50 years old

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and 45% of the pipelines are made from

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corrosion and leak-prone materials. So

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how can we mitigate methane emissions?

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First the government could create

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regulations to restrict the amount of

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methane emitted. In the oil and gas

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industry regulations like the Source

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Determination Rule can force energy

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companies to detect and reduce the

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leakage of methane. In the agriculture

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industry the government could eliminate

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subsidies for factory farms that help to

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further industrialize agricultural

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practices, thus making their products the

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cheapest on the market

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However policies and regulations can

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sometimes take decades to pass and the

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current administration is shifting