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cheses t1_j803mk8 wrote

Just look at wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential

It is always important to look at the time scale. Methane has a lifetime of 12 years. This means for a a longer time frame (most of the time we are looking at a 100 year time scale), the effect of methane shrinks as it does nothing for 88 years, but a lot in 12 years.

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VolkerRacho t1_j809nk4 wrote

What becomes of the methane after the its lifetime?

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ivanthekur t1_j80dge0 wrote

I believe it mostly oxidizes turning into water vapor and carbon dioxide.

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UnamedStreamNumber9 t1_j856sz7 wrote

Indeed it does, both of which are greenhouse gasses in their own. The water has a relatively quick recycle but the CO2 has a longer one, and needs to be treated as warming attributed to the original methane emission as it is CO2 which would otherwise not be in the atmosphere

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