The biggest mystery in the history of mankind

It may be the biggest mystery in the history of mankind. What could that be, you ask? What was the cause of the worldwide methane gas increase in 2007?

According to a study done at MIT in 2008, researchers were baffled that methane began increasing again after it had leveled off for nearly 10 years, from about 1997 until 2007. They were originally baffled that it had stopped rising in the 90’s, but even more mystified when it started rising again.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2008/methane-tt1029

Here’s why it was such a mystery. The guys at MIT said that when the levels started to increase, it was on a worldwide scale. It started rising in both hemispheres. They said that it should have started in the northern hemisphere, where most methane production occurs, such as aquaculture, wetlands, livestock and landfills, and then over the course of a year, the methane would spread into the southern hemisphere. But, that didn’t happen. The increasing methane levels were the same throughout.

According to the MIT report, methane levels had more than tripled since pre-industrial times (the mid 1700’s) and that accounted for about 20% of human contribution to global warming. Researchers assumed that after the rate of emission leveled off in the late 1990’s it had balanced out with its rate of destruction in the atmosphere.

Mysteriously, methane release jumped all at once, adding a million metric tons of gas to the atmosphere. At first, they thought that it may have been because there were exceptionally warm temperatures throughout 2007 over Siberia creating more bacteria from wetlands. Well, this still wouldn’t explain the rise in methane emissions from the southern hemisphere.

One suggestion by the MIT researchers is that there was a drop in hydroxyl radicals that mitigate methane release and keep it all balanced. But, they say that this would still result in a rise in the southern hemisphere.

Of course, after further studies, they came out in a report the following year saying it was “probable” that these new methane emissions were a natural earth cycle. This is what scientists have to do. When they can’t figure something out, they do the next best thing to appear in control. They come up with something, such as this “probable” natural earth cycle. It makes them feel better, but the fact remains that this wasn’t “probably” natural. The levels of methane remained the same for over 400,000 years prior to the industrial times when it started rising in the 1750’s. At this time, mankind started burning coal and we started creating landfills.

It took nearly 250 years for the levels to double from around 400 ppb to over 700 ppb. Then it suddenly leveled off for a decade. Then, in 2007, it skyrocketed. In what took 250 years took only 7 years this time around…but methane levels tripled this time. Now, the levels are over 2,000 ppb.

Why did this happen? That is the greatest mystery in the history of mankind.

I have an opinion. What major change has occurred in our world prior to 2007?

In 2005, George Bush signed into law the Clean Water Act that allowed fracking to begin. How many hundreds of thousands of wells were drilled in that short period of time between 2005 and 2007, or 08 or beyond? And how many were left abandoned and not even used?

It was said that fracking was supposed to be cleaner than coal and in order for that to happen, oil and gas companies could only lose up to 3% of the methane extracted from below or it would be worse than coal. Well, guess what, numerous studies, including admissions from the EPA, have proven now that they are losing more than 3% and it ranges all the way up to 9%. This is gas that is supposed to be captured, but it is "fugitive" and is escaping before they capture it. This is just the gas during the extraction process, not to mention how much gas escapes when these sights are first drilled.

Fracking was supposed to be our savior, cutting down carbon emissions from coal use. Well, the one thing they ignored in these original studies was methane, a far worse threat to our atmosphere than carbon because it is 25 times more efficient at trapping the sun's heat. It's like carbon was a sheet over the planet and now we've thrown a quilt on top of that. Not good at all!