Science magazine
published a report by the
Environmental Defense Fund
claiming 13 million metric tons
of methane (CH4), natural gas,
is leaking from the
natural gas supply chain.
That's about 2.3%
of total production.
The Wall Street Journal
recently had a headline:
“Natural-Gas Boom
Driving Methane Leaks,
Study Finds ..."
The EDF claims:
Methane leaks
and unplanned plumes
vented from storage tanks
and processing plants
are likely larger
than previously realized.
The Environmental Defense Fund,
a nonprofit environmental group,
claims the leaks are big enough
to make a shift from coal to gas
effectively meaningless
over a 20-year time span.
They claim enough greenhouse gasses
are leaking from the gas industry
to equal roughly the 20-year climate impact
from all the coal-fired power plants
running nationwide in 2015.
The claim is nonsense!
Laboratory experiments using
infrared absorption spectroscopy
show that methane gas
absorbs infrared radiation
within narrow wavelengths -
- wavelengths that are
also absorbed by water vapor,
the dominant greenhouse gas.
So there is little remaining energy
for methane to absorb.
With water vapor available,
there are few photons
for methane to absorb,
because water vapor
has already absorbed them.
Even in the polar regions,
where the air is relatively dry,
greenhouse warming from methane
will be tiny, because water vapor
is still more plentiful than methane.
The editors of Science seem to know
a lot about climate scaremongering,
but very little about
greenhouse gases theory
and logarithmic functions
-- absorption "saturates",
so the absorption curves
for all gases are logarithmic.
That's why each
+100 ppm increase of CO2
should have less
of a nighttime warming effect
than the prior +100 ppm
increase of CO2.
(Note: The warming effect
of CO2 is assumed,
and can not be measured).
Laboratory experiments using
infrared absorption spectroscopy
show that carbon dioxide
absorbs infrared radiation
within three narrow bands
of wavelengths.
Wavelengths in two of the three bands
are also absorbed by water vapor,
the dominant greenhouse gas.
But water vapor has little effect
on the third band of wavelengths.
That means there's one band of energy
(infrared heat) for carbon dioxide to absorb
during the night, as our planet cools
by releasing infrared heat into space.
DETAILS:
The Earth releases infrared (heat) energy
as it cools at night, mainly wavelengths
between 6.5 and 12.5 microns,
with a peak near 9.5 microns.
CO2’s absorbs infrared wavelengths
in three bands, with peaks
at 2.7, 4.3 and 15 microns,
all missing the peak outgoing
infrared wavelength of 9.5 microns.
The greenhouse effect
interferes with cooling,
mainly at night,
raising the nighttime
low temperature,
by some unknown amount,
which is harmless,
... even if you assume
the worst case -- that
all warming since 1950
was caused only by CO2.
( with no scientific proof
that any warming since 1950
was caused by CO2 )
The greenhouse effect
is mainly higher
night-time low temperatures
with only a small increase
of day-time high temperatures.
night-time low temperatures
with only a small increase
of day-time high temperatures.