None of the affected pipelines were operational, but they likely contained gas under pressure, CNN reported. Scientists do not fully understand all the possible consequences, but they already say that the impact on the climate will be catastrophic. The results will be felt even decades later.

Bad news about climate

• Methane is one of the greenhouse gases that traps heat in the atmosphere.
• The global warming potential is 30 times greater than carbon dioxide.
• While methane doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it’s initially much more destructive to the climate because of how efficiently it absorbs the sun’s heat.
• In the first two decades after its release, methane is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Given that over two decades, one tonne of methane has an 80 times greater impact on climate than CO2.₂The large and extremely harmful emission potential is cause for concern. There is some uncertainty, but if these pipelines fail, the impact on the climate could be catastrophic and even unprecedented.
says David McCabe, senior scientist with the Clean Air Task Force.

The gas coming out of the pipes will now begin to absorb the sun’s heat and warm the atmosphere.

Scientists have seen one of the ways to curb global warming is to reduce emissions of methane into the atmosphere. It was possible to do this by modernizing the industry, equipment, farming methods, methods of controlling landfills – all this produces emissions of this dangerous gas. However, now the problem arises from another side.

Humanity today has methods for monitoring methane emissions, such as several satellites monitoring gas clouds in the atmosphere, but no effective ways to deal with the methane released into the air.