GoKawiil
Tech News
A new analysis using satellite observations has identified the 15 highest-emitting methane sources across three major U.S. oil and gas producing basins. The report pinpoints specific facilities and infrastructure responsible for the largest volumes of methane leakage detected from orbit.
A new study finds that as global temperatures rise, thawing permafrost, drying forests, wildfires, and warming wetlands are releasing additional methane and carbon dioxide that current climate models largely fail to account for. Researchers estimate these natural feedback loops could amplify overall global warming by 20% to 30% by the end of the century, adding between 0.2C and 0.4C depending on how aggressively nations cut fossil fuel emissions.
Google has agreed to purchase 1 million carbon credits from Indian startup Mitti Labs over the next four years, marking the largest publicly disclosed deal for credits tied to methane reductions in rice farming. The project will pay farmers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana to shorten how long rice fields stay flooded, cutting methane emissions by roughly half and water use by about 40% without hurting yields. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
French startup The Exploration Company, led by Helene Huby, closed a record $450 million Series C funding round to advance its Nyx cargo capsule, a future crewed spacecraft, and plans for a reusable heavy-lift rocket. Huby says the company aims to test a 400,000-pound-thrust methane engine by 2028 and fly the new launcher by 2033, with further fundraising expected once key technical milestones are hit.
Scientists analyzed ice cores extracted from a glacier in Peru, finding trapped air bubbles that preserve a historical record of atmospheric methane concentrations. The ice-locked data allows researchers to track methane trends across an extended timeline, offering a rare Southern Hemisphere perspective on the greenhouse gas's history.
A new analysis draws on atmospheric measurement records and emission datasets to explain why global methane concentrations temporarily plateaued rather than kept rising. Researchers attribute the pause primarily to increases in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and a geographic shift of those emissions toward the Southern Hemisphere, which altered atmospheric chemistry governing methane's main removal pathway via hydroxyl radicals.