Daily Podcast #17

Source 🎧

The setellite helping slow climate change - righy now | Millie Chu Baird - TED Tech (TED Audio Collective)

Sentences ✍️

1. Each week, you’ll be guided through the exciting, challenging, and sometimes entertaining vortex of Internet extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation.
   • vortex: A powerful spinning flow of air or liquid that pulls things into its center; metaphorically, a situation that is hard to escape because of strong emotions or chaos.
   • New sentence: She found herself caught in a vortex of stress and deadlines during the final week of the project.
2. And that satellite would need spectrometers that did not yet exist.
   • spectrometer: A scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of light, especially to determine the composition of substances.
   • New sentence: The researchers used a spectrometer to analyze the chemical makeup of the distant star’s atmosphere.
3. We are supporting both the technology and the advocacy.
   • advocacy: The act of supporting or arguing in favor of a cause, policy, or idea, often publicly.
   • New sentence: His advocacy for clean water access has inspired major policy changes in rural communities.

Summarization 👀

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, responsible for about 12% of U.S. emissions, mainly from livestock, landfills, and leaky oil and gas infrastructure. Despite its relatively short atmospheric lifespan, methane traps over 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term.

To tackle this urgent issue, the Environmental Defense Fund launched MethaneSAT, a satellite designed to detect and track global methane emissions with high precision. Traditional self-reporting and airplane-based detection methods were limited, prompting the need for space-based monitoring.

MethaneSAT uses innovative spectrometers to measure methane levels from 590 km above the Earth, capturing both large leaks and smaller, dispersed sources. The satellite collects comprehensive data and shares it freely with governments, companies, and nonprofits.

Fixing methane leaks is often technically simple but lacks prioritization—MethaneSAT aims to change that by providing accurate, timely data. The goal is to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by 75% within six years.

Over 150 countries have joined the Global Methane Pledge, and companies covering 40% of global production have committed to reduce methane emissions by 90% by 2030. With transparency, data, and coordinated action, we can slow global warming in our lifetimes.