CH4 = methane

Methane is the simplest alkane, and component of natural gas.
Burning methane with oxygen produces carbon dioxide + water.
Earth always had a lot of methane. Naturally it exists as a gas form.
The famous Italian Alessandro Volta has published his findings about methane in 1778.
Most of us know Volta, because the Volt = V was named after him.

Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas and is partly responsible for our changing climate.

In the 17th century about
700 ppb = parts per billion of methane was measured in Earth's Atmosphere.
At the end of the last century, about
1700 ppb were counted.
2010 up to 1850 ppb methane are in Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists say that this level is the highest in 300000 years.

Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2.
Read more about CO2 carbon dioxide on our webpage CO2.

The greatest danger is a very large amount of methane bound in methane clathrates in Earth's ocean floors.

This methane "ice" is melting because of higher ocean temperatures. The higher the temperature in our oceans is rising, the faster the methane is bubbling up!

Earth's crust holds a lot of methane.
Humans produce methane as a person and humans are responsible for the creation of methane in our landfills.
The growing amount of livestock, needed as human food, are producing methane by enteric fermentation.
All livestock on Earth produce annually about 80 million metric tons of methane.
That is about 30% of global methane emissions from human-related activities.
An adult cow emits about 200 lbs of methane.
The US raises about 100 million cattle -
1.2 billion large livestock on Earth -
most of them to feed humans,
are one of the largest methane producers. In the United States, cattle emit about 20% of all U.S. methane emissions.