#274 | Awakening The Giant: Global Methane Release & The Great Strategic Mistake w/ Dr. Ira Leifer
Intro: 8:46
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Ira Leifer, founder and CEO of Bubbleology Research International Inc, and researcher who specializes in bubble-related oceanographic processes, satellite remote sensing, and air pollution.
Dr. Leifer explains how methane release, particularly from fossil fuel extraction and other industrial practices, has been a major contributor to rapid global temperature rise over the past decade and a half. He asserts that focusing so heavily on reducing CO2 emissions, while certainly the most consistent driver of anthropogenic climate change in the long term, has been something of a strategic mistake by climate activists and policymakers in nations across the planet. Not because it's not worth addressing, but because it ignores the most dramatic contributor to rapid climate disruption in the near term, methane. Also, of note and increasing relevance, is the increase of methane release in the Arctic region and its inevitable impact on the climate system.
As Dahr Jamail, in his book ‘The End of Ice,’ writes in his chapter on this subject featuring the work and words of Dr. Leifer:
Over a five-year cycle, methane can trap up to a hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide, and thirty-five times as much over a hundred-year time scale, making it a far more potent greenhouse gas in both the short and long terms. “Over a ten-year timescale, methane globally dominates climate change,” Leifer tells me when I speak with him from Utqiagvik. “If changes over ten years push you over a tipping point, you can’t return from that. This is why focusing on methane makes enormous sense.” (http://bit.ly/TheEndOfIce)
Dr. Ira Leifer is the founder and CEO of Bubbleology Research International Inc, an environmental consulting and R&D company. Dr. Leifer has raised over 20 million in grants and commercial contracts to date including a multi-million dollar international, multi-university field marine project for a fortune 25 company in the North Sea, and leading the NASA response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Under Dr. Leifer's leadership, BRI has developed and is now manufacturing, a state-of-the-art meteorology and air quality monitoring solution to meet regulatory requirements for industrial sites.
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Dr. Leifer’s work with Bubbleology Research International Inc: http://bubbleology.com
- The song featured is “Carousel” by Eli Stonemets.
