00:00There's a range of climate restoration methods aimed to deal with carbon dioxide and methane,
00:07and the most promising ones attempt to imitate and accelerate ways that nature deals with
00:13them.
00:14Out of each of these technologies, methane removal is the focus of this story, because
00:21in terms of slowing down climate heating, it offers the most immediate possibilities.
00:27But what is methane, and why could it play such an important role in restoring the climate?
00:34In simple terms, methane is far more powerful than carbon dioxide.
00:39Molecule for molecule, it has a far stronger warming effect on the climate than carbon
00:44dioxide.
00:45But it only lasts in the atmosphere for 8 to 12 years, unlike carbon dioxide, which
00:51stays in the atmosphere for around 300 to 1,000 years.
00:58One of the growing number of scientists working in the field of methane and methane removal
01:03is Dr. Renaud de Richter.
01:05So methane is a greenhouse gas, much more powerful than carbon dioxide.
01:11On a 20-year basis, it's 86 times more powerful.
01:14And what is attracting in methane is its short lifetime, because it's only between
01:218 and 12 years lifetime.
01:23So we can act on methane, and we should act on methane, because right now the global warming
01:29due to methane is 0.5 degrees Celsius, and carbon dioxide is only about 0.8.
01:37So methane is really the second most important greenhouse gas, and acting on it, we can reduce
01:43temperatures.
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