With countries across the globe taking actions to combat climate change, carbon dioxide gets all the attention as a climate villain. Methane, on the other hand, is significantly more potent and has far greater heat-trapping potential, making it crucial to cut methane emissions in order to address climate crisis. To reduce methane intensity, an MIT team has developed a new approach to remove methane from the air by using clay found in a cat litter.
Agriculture, coal mining, melting permafrost, and as a by-product of natural gas processing and transportation all generate substantial amounts of methane. Methane is 81 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere in its first 20 years after it was released than carbon dioxide, and 27 times more effective over a century. As a result, methane capture and removal play a critical part of our planet protection plans.
