At the beginning of the year, Jacoline van Es, one of our PhDs involved in the European PARIS project, was invited to give a presentation at a local high school. The students were doing a high school module from ‘tipping point ahead’ about methane. After carbon dioxide, methane is the second most important greenhouse gas, and Jacoline is doing a PhD focussing on the impacts of this gas.
Jacoline studies methane isotopes in the atmosphere, and given that methane is still rising in the atmosphere, sharing our knowledge about climate change and what is causing it with the youth is harder needed than ever. Methane is about 80 times more effective than carbon dioxide at warming the planet over a 20-year period.” Methane, though present naturally, has spiked due to human activities—especially agriculture, waste management, and fossil fuel extraction. It also has a lifetime of approximately 10 years. This means that a reduction of methane can make a significant contribution to mitigate climate change. Methane emission reductions are more cost-effective than most carbon dioxide emission reduction measures and will lead to quicker gains in the reduction of greenhouse gas radiative forcing.
Here in the Netherlands, we can see examples of climate change, as the increased mean temperatures limited a Dutch tradition: the Elfstedentocht. It is a long-distance tour skating event on natural ice, almost 200 kilometres long. The Elfstedentocht is the biggest ice-skating tour in the world, and due to continuously higher mean temperatures in winter, we wait longer and longer for it to happen. The last one was in 1997, before I was even born!
“When you see cows grazing in the field, or when trash is left to decompose in landfills, methane is being released,” she explained. “This is a problem because methane warms our planet, contributing to climate change and by this to rising sea levels, stronger storms, and more extreme weather patterns.”
The students asked many questions on how to mitigate this gas. A lot also showed their concern, as we are talking about their future. It also became a concern, as all students live below sea level, and sea level rising could impact them. “But how can we remove methane?” one of the students asked. “The most important step is emission reduction, as this prevents new methane from entering the atmosphere, but we are also doing studies in our group to natural reductions and how we can enhance these.
Jacoline also showed what she is doing in her daily work, which includes lots of different aspects such as measurements in the lab, modelling and fieldwork. This gave the students a sneak peek into the work of a scientist.
Who knows, maybe, in the near future, we can welcome one of the students sitting in Jacolines’ presentation at the IMAU lab to continue the work on how to mitigate this important greenhouse gas!
