[GWSG] A new economy; CH4 our fault; What! Ours?; microbes ate our CH4; 1/4 of climate tweets by denier bots

[Tilley, Al]

1. A six-minute video of comments by such financial leaders as the CEO of Black Rock and the Governor of the Bank of England support the general thesis that a new post-fossil fuel economy is well on the way. https://climatecrocks.com/2020/02/18/big-news-from-black-rock-investment-giants-moving-to-renewable-energy/



2. An analysis of the methane in ancient air samples found that releases from geological seeps are lower than supposed. Much of what we had thought was naturally released methane derives from fossil fuel development, which releases 25-40% more methane than we had thought. The methane industry is much easier to control than geological seeps. “If we can reduce our emissions, it's going to have more of an impact." https://phys.org/news/2020-02-methane-emitted-humans-vastly-underestimated.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter



3. A sampling of the press reaction to the Nature article behind the last item revealed gassy noises ranging from familiar murmurs about promised leak repair to vigorous squealing. Content analysis indicates the gas to be of probable corporate origin. A few articles with corporate gas edited out: https://climatecrocks.com/2020/02/21/methane-explained/



4. “Old methane and modern climate change” by J.F. Dean in the current issue of Science observes that relatively little methane was released by geological seeps because it is rich food for microorganisms, which oxidize it to CO2. How much may be released in the future as new conditions overwhelm the old processes is a significant unanswered question. (This PhysOrg link concerns two articles which underlie the Dean article.) https://phys.org/news/2020-02-carbon-reservoirs-massive-greenhouse-gas.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter



5. An unpublished Brown U study found that a quarter of all climate tweets are produced by bots, mostly denying the crisis. One effect is to diminish the trust in accurate information. Trump seems fond of the bots, which may have influenced him to leave the Paris Accords.   https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/21/climate-tweets-twitter-bots-analysis?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

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