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Methane emissions

News: According to a BBC report, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has invested in an Australian climate technology start-up that seeks to reduce the methane emissions from cow burps.

Methane:

• Hydrocarbon methane (CH4) is a main constituent of natural gas. Because methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG), its presence in the atmosphere has an impact on the planet’s climate and temperature.
• A colourless, odourless, and extremely combustible gas is methane (CH4).
• Methane makes for about 20% of worldwide emissions and is the second most common anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide (CO2).
• Nearly half of all anthropogenic methane emissions are thought to originate in China, the United States, Russia, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico.
• Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas and has a shorter lifetime than carbon dioxide, achieving considerable reductions would quickly and significantly reduce the potential for atmospheric warming.

Methane production:

• 50 to 65 percent of all methane emissions worldwide are caused by the following human activities:
• raising animals: Cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes are examples of ruminants, which have a unique sort of digestive tract that enables them to break down and digest food that other species of animals would not be able to.
• Systemic leaks involving natural gas landfills and household and commercial trash
• The main source is agriculture.
• Another 8% of emissions attributed to humans come from paddy rice production, where flooded fields prevent oxygen from accessing the soil, creating ideal circumstances for bacteria that generate methane.