Aaron Clark Profile picture
Jul 26 10 tweets 4 min read
Mountains of garbage near #SouthAsia megacities are contributing to some of the world’s strongest and most persistent #methane clouds observed by satellite, highlighting a major challenge in the global climate fight. A 🧵 on my latest for @climate
bloomberg.com/features/2022-… 1/10
Waste sites generate the potent greenhouse gas when organic material like food scraps or cardboard breaks down in the absence of oxygen. 2/10
Failing to curb releases from the waste sector, which is responsible for about 20% of all methane generated from human activity, could derail global climate goals. A good overview on this issue from @RockyMtnInst here: rmi.org/insight/mitiga… 3/10
The Ghazipur dump on the outskirts of India’s capital, New Delhi, was spewing roughly 2.17 metric tons of methane an hour in March when a @ghgsat satellite passed overhead. 4/10
If that emissions rate was sustained over a year, the leak would have the same short-term climate impact as the annual emissions from ~350,000 US cars. 5/10
Last year, more than half of all methane emissions measured globally from landfills by @ghgsat were in Asia, and India accounted for nearly a quarter of the total. 6/10
Diverting food scraps and other organics before they enter a landfill is crucial to limiting future emissions. The impact of legacy dumps can be mitigated through aerating piles of trash and gas capture systems: 7/10
When my colleague @archchaudhary spoke to people who worked and live near Ghazipur many of them also pointed to the human toll from the dump: 8/10
“In our area, you will find very few people who are older than 50 years old,” said Owais, 28, a private contractor who goes by one name and lives near Ghazipur. 9/10
“There’s no government health center in our community and many people don’t realize that pollution from the dump is what is causing health problems. Those of us who understand can’t do much about it.” 10/10

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More from @aaronaclark1

Apr 13
Methane leaks from ships using liquefied natural gas as fuel make most of the vessels dirtier than ones using diesel or heavy fuel oil, a new analysis shows.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 1/5
The findings by @transenv call into question a key plank of the @europeanunion’s proposed regulations aimed at decarbonizing the emissions heavy shipping industry. 2/5
The non-profit also used an infrared camera to document methane leaking from LNG-powered ships in the port of Rotterdam. (Check out the cool video in the story.) 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Feb 4
One of the surprising takeaways revealed by satellites tracking the world's worst methane emissions is just how avoidable so many of them are.

A 🧵 about one of the world's most isolated climate disasters and what can be done about it: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In western Turkmenistan, scientists have found 29 pieces of oil and gas equipment spewing so much methane that by one measure the climate impact is roughly on par with the annual emissions from all the cars in Alabama. The state has about 4.7 million light duty vehicles. 1/11
Two dozen of the 29 sources are faulty flares that stopped combusting super-potent methane into less harmful carbon dioxide. It's not clear if the flares simply went out and need to be relit — a procedure familiar to most energy operators — or if they had larger glitches. 2/11
Read 12 tweets
Sep 7, 2021
I've been using satellites to report on powerful, invisible greenhouse gases from some of the world's biggest polluters for @business and @climate and I have some thoughts🧵. Image courtesy of @Kayrros.
1/15 All greenhouse gases are bad because they trap heat in the atmosphere, but methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is especially nasty. If released without being burned, it has ~80 times the warming impact of CO2 in the short term.
2/15 Here's a rough history of the biggest methane plumes across North America, Europe, Russia and Central Asia from 2019 to present detected by satellite. You can see oil and gas pipeline routes running through Russia and Canada. All satellite imagery courtesy of @Kayrros. Image courtesy of @Kayrros.Image courtesy of @Kayrros.
Read 19 tweets

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