15 basic facts about methane and the environment

I’m probably among the small portion of people who follow or care about methane news. There has been more news about thane in the past two weeks than in decades previous. The topic is complex and controversial. This post is an attempt to lay out basic facts that e do know and agree on without any added opinion or slant. I deliberately left out important information that is not as widely agreed on.

1. Methane level in the atmosphere has spiked sharply in recent years, rising more quickly than other gases.
2. Methane comes from both human-caused and natural sources.
3. About 1/3 of methane comes from human activity. The majority is naturally produced.
4. The cause(s) of the sharp increase in methane is not widely agreed.
5. The increase in methane likely comes from both human and natural sources.
6. Methane is more hazardous to human life on the planet than other gases.
7. A large, possibly the largest, source of naturally produced methane is wetlands.
8. Sea level rise causes increased methane production by the wetlands.
9. Draining wetlands lovers methane production but this is a controversial tactic for other reasons.
10. Research is underway on methane. Interim research reports were issued recently.
11. U.S. cattle production trends are being fingered as a leading human-caused source of the increase.
12. Fracking is also being blamed a leading human-caused source of the increase in methane.
13. The federal government put methane control procedures in place for human-caused methane. Those controls were implemented by the Obama administration. The Trump administration is trying to cancel or delay these control measures. Legal battles are underway.
14. At least one court ruled against the Trump administration.
15. The end result of this issue will likely have impact on Baysave Corporation’s efforts preserve wetlands in my region of NJ’s bayshore.