Dear Editor,
I read Oliver Milman's article on record increases of methane in the atmosphere (The Guardian, 8th April 2022, link below). This is indeed very worrying!
Scientists are not sure where it comes from, but about one third is from industry (e.g. burning off during drilling operations). Here I would hazard a guess that, with record temperatures in the Arctic, the other two thirds come from melting permafrost in Siberia and in Canada.
So, yes, we need to urgently get out of fossil fuels. But two quotes in the article strike me as bizarre ...
1. That we should use oil-companies' profits to do this: The logically consequence would be to tie us into some kind of weird, symbiotic relationship with them. Better would be to simply not use it and for big-oil to go bankrupt.
2. That clean, renewable energy is the answer: Yes, this should play a role, but surely first we should simply "get real" and a.) live more modestly, b.) source our needs more locally and, c.) get off our lazy butts and use our legs, bicycles and public transport.
I despair that these points are regularly passed over and that we seem to repeatedly apply "Alice in Wonderland" logic.
PS: And, on top of this, we are busy squabbling with Russia and obsessing over Covid (especially here in Germany) ... while our house is burning!
Regards
