Cutting methane emissions could give us an extra decade to deal with climate change
- 26 Jun 2012, 16:00
- Christian Hunt
Could cutting methane emissions now could give us an extra
decade in which to reduce carbon dioxide emissions? That's the
conclusion of Peter Cox, a professor of
climate system dynamics at Exeter University, who
outlines why in this recent TEDx talk.
Cox believes we could "feasibly" cut manmade methane emissions
by 40%. Because methane is what he calls a "sensitive control" on
the total amount of carbon dioxide we can emit in the future while
staying below a certain amount of global warming, that could
provide more time to undertake the challenging task of reducing
carbon dioxide emissions.
Here's the talk, which builds on
a research paper Cox co-authored back in 2010: