Yes, obviously AI is emitting way too much. It shouldn’t even be producing 0.2% of global emissions, let alone 2%. My main grievance is that no one ever talks about improving industrial and agricultural processes even though they produce around 29% of emissions and 20% of emissions respectively.

  • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
    1·
    7 hours ago

    Anaerobic bacteria produce methane. When oxygen is present, the aerobic pathway outcompetes anaerobic because more energy is available, producing CO2 instead.

    GHG are usually measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent (GWP) where methane is about 80x as much warming as the same mass of CO2 over a 20 year period, or about 25x as much warming over a 100 year period.

    This is also what’s going on in the steady replacement of various refrigerants with lower-GWP alternatives.

    • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      How is CO2 equivalent measured based on altitude and since methane will eventually degrade to CO2?

      This seems really problematic for comparing different types of GHG emissions and gauging what type has the most contribution to global warming.

        • Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          6 minutes ago

          The GWP value depends on how the gas concentration decays over time in the atmosphere. This is often not precisely known and hence the values should not be considered exact. For this reason when quoting a GWP it is important to give a reference to the calculation. Commonly, a time scale of 100 years is used by regulators.

          So it’s an educated guess that has lots of flaws just like I said. GHG emissions comparisons between output methods is ridiculous. Because again, water is a GHG emission.