methane

Methane emissions are responsible for nearly a third of the total warming the planet has experienced so far. While there are natural sources of the greenhouse gas, including wetlands, human activities like agriculture and fossil-fuel production have dumped millions of metric tons of additional methane into the atmosphere. The concentration of methane has more than doubled over the past 200 years. But there are still large uncertainties about where, exactly, emissions are coming from. Answering these questions is a…

The key is contrails, thin clouds that planes produce when they fly. Minimizing contrails means less warming, and changing flight paths can reduce the amount of contrail formation. Read more about how in the latest from my colleague James Temple.  Keeping up with climate   New rules from the US Securities and Exchange Commission were watered down, cutting off the best chance we’ve had at forcing companies to reckon with the dangers of climate change, as Dara O’Rourke writes in a new opinion piece. (MIT Technology…

The news: A new AI agent from Google DeepMind can play different games, including ones it has never seen before such as Goat Simulator 3, a fun action game with exaggerated physics. Unlike earlier game-playing AI systems, which mastered only one game or could only follow single goals or commands, this new agent is able to play a variety of different games, including Valheim and No Man’s Sky.  How they did it: Researchers were able to get it to follow text commands to play seven different games and move around in three…

A privately funded satellite is set to push methane tracking into a new era, once it launches into space on Monday.A collaborative mission between Environmental Defense Fund, Google, the Government of New Zealand and several other partners, MethaneSAT will track methane emissions around the globe in attempts to identify and quantify sources spewing the climate-heating greenhouse gas. For 20 years after its release into the atmosphere, methane gas is 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide in its ability to increase…

Scientists have discovered that viruses infecting microbes significantly impact climate change by affecting methane cycling. This study, analyzing DNA from various environments, shows that the environmental impact of viruses varies by habitat. The research underscores the complex relationship between viruses, microbes, and methane emissions, suggesting the need for further exploration into viral roles in climate dynamics.Study reveals microorganisms, once infected, harbor novel genes for methane generation.A recent study…

Earlier this week, a new satellite launched to track methane as it emanates from oil and gas fields across the world, hoping to expose major producers of the greenhouse pollutant and hold them accountable for their commitment to lower emissions.Prime Day Ain't That 'Green'MethaneSAT launched on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Monday as part of the Transporter-10 rideshare mission, along with 52 other payloads. The emissions monitor is designed to detect methane from 300 targets worldwide, which account for 80% of global…

New Satellite Will Launch to Track Methane EmissionsObservations from MethaneSat could be used to independently verify industry reports and enforce regulations on fossil fuel companiesBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsA natural gas flare burns near an oil pump jack at the New Harmony Oil Field in Grayville, Illinois. Credit: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | A new satellite mission, spearheaded by the Environmental Defense Fund, aims to help scientists spy on global methane emissions from the oil and…

A model of MethaneSAT, which recently launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Credit: MethaneSAT After more than seven years of development, MethaneSAT recently launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. A collaboration between the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Environmental Defense Fund and other partners,…

A mission to map and track global methane pollution, a powerful greenhouse gas, is scheduled to launch today after years of collaboration between some of the biggest names in tech. It’s called MethaneSAT, a satellite that’s garnered funding and support from Jeff Bezos, Google, and SpaceX, among others.MethaneSAT is expected to launch today from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:05PM PT. Liftoff will be livestreamed on the SpaceX website and on the company’s X profile. The…

Colorado-born Ball Aerospace has a new owner, a new name and what the company hopes will be a growing global customer base. But Dave Kaufman, president of the company now called Space & Mission Systems, said the nearly 70-year-old business is “staying put” in Colorado. BAE Systems PLC, a British arms, security and aerospace company, closed the $5.5 billion acquisition of Ball Aerospace from Ball Corp. on Friday, Feb. 16. Kaufman, previously Ball Aerospace president and a Ball Corp. senior vice president, removed a…