Thread: How are gas prices affecting you???

Tweet

The use of methane from landfills is a very good idea where possible. Methane is actually a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide is a linear molecule with only three atoms it only has four vibrational modes while methane has five atoms and is tetrahedral so it has nine vibrational modes. Although the vibrational modes absorb and hold infrared heat energy to differing extents depending on their vibrational frequency, 9 is more than 4 so methane can hold more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide and so is a much more effective greenhouse gas than methane. In fact, folks who wanted to deny that global warming is caused by human combustion of fossil fuels used to bring up cud-chewing animals like cows as a source of methane in cattle flatulance! Maybe it is worth mentioning that some greenhouse gases are necessary for life as we know it since without greenhouse gases the daily energy from the Sun if not held by the greenhouse gases would lower the average temperature to totally freeze all the oceans and in fact there are theories that long ago when the composition of the Earth's atmosphere was quite different the whole planet did indeed go through a "snowball" stage where all the oceans did freeze. So we do need greenhouse gases to hold the heat from the Sun but the argument is about how much and what causes fluctuations in greenhouse gases. While we are on this subject, whose fault is the occasional volcanic eruptions which spew incredible amounts of gases and particles into the atmosphere which tends to cool the Earth! Just some random thoughts related to methane as a fuel and/or greenhouse gas.

Don Shillady
Retired SCientist/teen rodder