- Methane is currently responsible for about one-third of global warming. This greenhouse gas is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its ability to heat up the climate system, though methane molecules only persist in the atmosphere for seven to 12 years before breaking down.
- Methane emissions are a major cause for concern, as they’ve been increasing at record speeds the past five years. At least two-thirds of annual methane emissions now come from human activities, including livestock, agriculture, fossil fuels, and landfills and other waste. Climate change is also increasing methane releases.
- Removing atmospheric methane is a tempting prospect as a climate change-curbing strategy. Multiple geoengineering approaches are being considered, but research remains limited and largely theoretical, while environmental impacts largely remain unknown and underexplored.
- Researchers say methane removal technologies, such as the iron salt method, should be investigated to break down atmospheric methane molecules. But scientists interviewed for this story repeatedly emphasized the most urgent need is to simultaneously make rapid deep cuts to human-caused methane emissions.

- Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto, has retained incumbent fisheries minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono to oversee expansion in productivity in captive fisheries over the next five years.
- Sakti has pledged to revive ailing aquaculture ponds, most of which are located on the northern coast of Java, where numerous village fishing economies are struggling amid depleted near-shore fish stocks and coastal development.
- In July, Indonesia’s then-vice president, Ma’ruf Amin, told a fisheries summit that climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental damage had hindered the output of near-shore fisheries in the world’s largest archipelagic country.

- A recent report from the FACT Coalition analyzed 230 cases of environmental crime in Amazon countries over the past decade to better understand how crimes are committed and how the associated profits are laundered.
- It found that the U.S. is the most common foreign destination for the products and proceeds of environmental crimes committed in the Amazon region.
- The most popular way to launder money involves the use of shell and front companies, and corruption was the single most prevalent convergent crime mentioned.
- Of the cases analyzed, only one in three appears to have included a parallel financial investigation.