Today's newsletter consists primarily of a series of images that appeared in the article in the url below. The first one was taken from a plane flying over a burning crater in the ground:
In the article, the caption attached to this image describes it as "Turkmenistan's 'Gates of Hell.'" More specifically, it is a disaster that has been unfolding over decades:
"… a crater 70 meters wide created in a drilling accident, has been burning gas for more than 40 years."
That is a lot of gas and a long period of time and fuels (literally) the focus of the article, which is methane emissions. While methane occurs at a lot lower frequency than carbon dioxide and lasts for less time in the atmosphere, it does much more damage in terms of its heating effects. The United Nations, for example, explains that methane has "a 100-year global warming potential 28-34 times that of CO2. Measured over a 20-year period, that ratio grows to 84-86 times." Online, there is video of the crater that is able to convey the extent of the disaster much more effectively than a single image (here is a screenshot):
The argument being made about methane emissions in Turkmenistan is supported by satellite images showing how much worse those emissions are from the country than from its neighbors:
As a result of the damage being done by methane in the atmosphere, one of the hopes for the COP26 meeting starting next week is that it will produce a global agreement to reduce these emissions (see here). There is a lot riding on COP26 and the pre-negotiation media/PR is both getting our hopes up, as well as preparing us for potential disappointment.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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Turkmenistan's Dirty Secret
By Aaron Clark and Matthew Campbell
October 19, 2021
Bloomberg Businessweek
