It's short-lived but its planet-heating effects are much stronger than CO2. Where does methane come from, and what can we do to stop it from getting into the atmosphere?
Methane is a massive contributor to climate changeImage: Matthew Brown/AP/picture alliance
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What's colorless, odorless, is the main component of natural gas and traps massive amounts of heat in the atmosphere?
Over a 20-year timescale, methane traps around 84 times as much heat as carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released by burning fossil fuels and is probably the most famous greenhouse gas of all.
The key difference between them is how long they stick around. On average, methane fades away after about 12 years while CO2 continues to warm the planet over centuries.
That means CO2 is the main contributor to climate change, but potent methane still wreaks plenty of havoc in its short lifetime. It's responsible for about a third of global warming since the Industrial Revolution.
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Where does methane come from?
Methane does sometimes come from non-human sources like wetlands.
These habitats contain things like permafrost, which is frozen ground that's also filled with carbon from animals and plants that have been dead for hundreds of thousands of years.
As temperatures rise with global warming, wetland permafrost thaws. That unleashes carbon, previously locked in the ice, in the form of CO2 and methane.
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But 60% of the methane that makes it into the atmosphere comes from human activities. That can be from agriculture — think cows' burps and farts and manure fertilizer — but also from decomposing waste in landfills and the energy sector.
How does the energy sector release methane?
Most energy consumed by humans comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Oil and gas are responsible for most energy sector methane emissions. The greenhouse gas pours out when companies produce, transport and store these fossil fuels.
Methane emissions can happen unintentionally. For example, it often escapes into the atmosphere when the equipment is rusty or damaged or even has something as simple as a loose screw.
Then there is gas flaring. That's when operators burn off natural gas linked to oil production.Flaring turns methane into CO2 that then goes into the atmosphere, but raw methane can still escape during the process.
Sometimes companies release small amounts of natural gas directly into the atmosphere, which is called venting.
Operators flare and vent because it can be expensive to process and transport the relatively small amount of gas that comes out of the ground during oil extraction. Or they do it for safety reasons, such as to reduce dangerous pressure increases.
That's why the European Union passed a new regulation in May that will force fossil fuel companies to routinely measure, report and reduce how much methane they are emitting. If they spot a leak, they need to fix it within 15 working days.
The regulation also bans flaring and venting in most cases. Venting is only allowed if there is a safety emergency. Flaring can only happen if it's not technically possible to reinject the natural gas into the ground on-site or transport it somewhere else.
Brazil: Wildfires devastate Pantanal wetlands
Fierce wildfires are raging through Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland. Slash-and-burn is suspected to be the cause, with climate change and the El Nino weather phenomenon exacerbating the situation.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Voracious wall of fire
A wildfire eats away at unburned land in Brazil's Panatanal. Since the beginning of June alone, an area the size of more than 59,000 soccer pitches has been destroyed in the wetlands in the west of the country, according to Brazilian media.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Apocalyptic landscape
An area of more than 3,400 square kilometers (about 1,300 square miles) has been in flames since January, reports the University of Rio de Janeiro, which has analyzed satellite data. This year's fires are the second worst in 15 years, with only the situation in 2020 even more critical. Back then, around one third of the entire Pantanal area was affected by the fires.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Paradise under threat
At 250,000 square kilometers, the Pantanal is the largest tropical swamp area in the world. But although the species-rich wetland biotope was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, it is under threat from illegal deforestation and the advance of industrial agriculture. The Brazilian authorities suspect that the current fires have been caused by slash-and-burn, a method of farming.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Nature out of balance
Fires are actually nothing unusual in the Pantanal; they are part of the cycle of massive rainfall and dry periods during which some areas burn. However, this cycle has been out of balance for years. The fires have caused concern among researchers, as the actual fire season usually begins with the dry season in July.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Running from the flames
Cleiton Jose and other farmers drive their cows away from the flames on horseback. The fires not only threaten nature, but also the livelihoods of the people living here: they devastate the flora and fauna in the region, which not only harms hunters and farmers, but also affects residents who live from ecotourism.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
Defenseless animals
This little monkey had no time to escape the flames — and it is not the only victim. The Pana Valley is known for its biodiversity. It is home to the world's largest jaguar species, the endangered tapir and giant anteaters, among others. They are all threatened by the wildfires. The devastating fires of 2020 killed 17 million vertebrates.
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
'There never used to be smoke here'
Fatima Brandao stands among her chickens in a haze of smoke from the fires. Brandao, who was born and raised in the Pantanal, told the Reuters news agency that she had never seen such devastating fires as this year's: "There never used to be smoke here. The sun shone clearly and the sky was always blue."
Image: Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS
El Nino adds fuel to the fire
According to environmentalist Delcio Rodrigues, the current weather conditions, influenced by climate change, are contributing to the fires. The region is experiencing exceptional drought, and rivers only have low water levels. According to experts, the drought that has prevailed since the end of 2023 is being exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which brings with it high temperatures.
