Josh Silverman
methane-man.bsky.social
Josh Silverman
@methane-man.bsky.social
Scientist/entrepreneur building new technologies to capture #methane and reverse #climatechange in our lifetimes!
Learn more about the opportunity for capturing methane:
https://www.windfall.bio/whitepapers/whats-the-deal-with-methane
It’s an interesting read, but feels like it immediately lumps non-approved as bad. There is plenty of data that single OA vaporizations are ineffective and repeated treatments are necessary, yet not ‘approved’. I also use generic OA on sponges (gasp) and I had 100% survival this winter.
February 15, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
It looks like one of the oil industry's organizations has decided to finally take methane emissions seriously. They've started a library with 150 resources!!

That should do it.
February 13, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
Drop everything and read this brilliant @charlescmann.bsky.social essay on how modern agriculture feeds the world. Fertilizer, irrigation, and genetics! www.thenewatlantis.com/publications...
We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It
Introducing “How the System Works,” a series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life
www.thenewatlantis.com
February 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
The next 24 hours are going to be interesting here in SoCal:
February 13, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The article claims it’s methane hydrates, which if true would be really really bad. Hydrates are stable when it’s cold, but when the ocean warms up are at risk of releasing a lot of methane all at once. Thought to be responsible for at least one mass extinction in the past…
February 13, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Feed additives are a hammer looking for a nail. We’ve known for decades you can reduce methane emissions just by improving the digestability of the diet for the cows. www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles...
www.ars.usda.gov
February 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Price of #eggs got you down? Hope my new babies can brighten your day!
February 11, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Anyone who didn’t see this coming must be oblivious on purpose. Just look at what happened with bovine growth hormone 20 years ago. Literally every carton on the shelves today says BGST-free with a further disclaimer that no data exists that BGST is bad for you. People are sensitive about their food
February 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
To be fair, you are quoting the area under the curve in long term warming potential, whereas the original poster is talking about instantaneous equivalent warming, ie current effective concentration. I think the real number is closer to 120x but I don’t have a link handy.
February 11, 2025 at 4:59 AM
I have two problems with the article. First, they only model effects on methanogens and have zero discussion of methanotrophs; net methane emissions result from the difference between the two. Second, they model an effect at 40kg sulfur per hectare per year which is ridiculously high and unlikely.
February 11, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Yeah not legal in most modern places since you can’t remove the frames and inspect for diseases and such
January 26, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Don’t be, it’s hilarious. He has another quote where he talks about the coastal elite ruining America and it’s like this guy has zero self awareness
January 26, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Thanks, now I won’t be able to stop thinking about it as well!
January 26, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
I can't stop thinking about Marc Andreessen saying in his "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" that the invention of air-conditioning has "solved the problem of heat." 🫠
January 26, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I bet you never thought you’d be excited to hear about barrels of pink bacterial sludge? These #mems pull #methane out of the air and can start immediately cooling the #climate!

www.globenewswire.com/news-release...
Windfall Bio Achieves Commercial-Scale Production of Methane-Eating Microbes
Windfall Bio achieves commercial-scale production of its methane removal solution...
www.globenewswire.com
January 15, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
I knew that Haber-Bosch uses 1% of the world’s energy to produces fixed nitrogen needed for food production, without which 2-3 billion people would starve to death. But I didn’t know the whole story. Thanks to @pauldauenhauer.bsky.social for the book recommendation.
The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager: 9780307351791 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the Haber-Bosch discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own. At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing....
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
January 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
This is your regular reminder that highly paid, grown-ass adults are sitting around figuring out how to leverage their companies' bazillions of dollars to get you to eat more crap food.

Yeah why are we fat again?

Gift link.

www.wsj.com/articles/why...
Why Food Companies Want Consumers to Buy More of Everything
After years of raising prices, food companies making everything from cookies to snacks and frozen meals say they need to sell more products to post a profit.
www.wsj.com
January 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Oh and my favorite: non-routine flaring that happens to be 11 months of the year…
January 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
The semantics of violent agreement! Just saying we know they release it as part of operations isn’t helpful as an action plan. You have valves, hatches, combustion slip, flare “malfunction”, “emergency” venting, etc etc. It’s lots of little things that are easy to ignore individually.
January 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I’m going to disagree here and say we actually don’t know. EPA reporting in the US has been entirely based on /self-reported/ emission data from O&G companies for decades. Every time anyone runs a third party analysis, they are off by factors of 2-3 at least. And don’t get me started on landfills!!!
January 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Here’s a pretty good article on where virtue signaling fails (with data!) from 2022. I feel it’s pretty insightful and people doing the signaling need to think abt what they are trying to achieve. Feel good about themselves or actually convince others to change?

thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-1...
Virtue Signaling for the Environment isn't Working
To win hearts and minds for the environment, stop trying to be perfect.
thebreakthrough.org
January 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Early January in Northern CA and the bees are already bringing in loads of pollen! Climate change is mostly depressing, so I try to enjoy what I can. 🐝
January 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Josh Silverman
This is exactly the attitude that I’m trying to push back against. We eat over 1 trillion eggs a year! It will not be simple to stop! Nobody likes the tradeoffs I write about but there just aren’t easy solutions to food and climate problems.
Simplest thing to do is to just stop eating eggs
January 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Personal computer not so much, but big power draws like crypto and AI would definitely be a good place to start.
January 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM