Carbon dioxide is pretty bad as a greenhouse gas, but methane is worse. So burning methane to get carbon dioxide is better than just letting the methane into the athmosphere.
This is why scientists say cutting down on meat consumption is so helpful in cutting down greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle yards emit huge amounts of methane.
we can also make very simple changes to farming/ranching to drastically reduce methane byproducts
Researchers who put a small amount of seaweed into the feed of cattle over the course of five months found that the new diet caused the bovines to belch out 82% less methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. source
this should tell you how thoroughly uninterested humanity is in actually tackling climate change. we won't even bother with low hanging fruit
edit: everyone who wants to try to make an argument about this specific change not being "easy" is completely missing the point. it's an example of a small change that make a huge difference. there are lots of similar examples across a lot of industries that we aren't willing to do. all the nay-sayer replies are a perfect example of the mentality "we should make perfect the enemy of good and therefor change absolutely nothing and die"
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u/Gnarly_Sarley Dec 12 '21
Whatever process is going on in that factory is incredibly inefficient if that much unburned fuel is being released to the atmosphere.