Environmental microbes caused more methane emissions than fossil fuels between 2020 and 2022, analysis finds

"Understanding where methane comes from helps us guide effective mitigation strategies," said Sylvia Michel, senior research assistant at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and a doctoral student in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder. "We need to know more about these emissions to understand what climate future we can expect."

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about a third of global warming since industrialization. Although the atmosphere contains less methane than carbon dioxide, methane traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 100 years, making it a critical target for addressing climate change. (University of Colorado at Boulder, more at phys.org)