Satellite data finds landfills are methane ‘super emitters’
BENGALURU, India — Landfills are releasing far more planet-warming methane into the atmosphere from the decomposition of waste than previously thought, a study suggests.
Scientists used satellite data from four major cities worldwide — Delhi and Mumbai in India, Lahore in Pakistan and Buenos Aires in Argentina — and found that emissions from landfills in 2018 and 2019 were 1.4 to 2.6 times higher than earlier estimates.
The study, published in Science Advances on Wednesday, is aimed at helping local governments carry out targeted efforts to limit global warming by pinpointing specific sites of major concern.
When organic waste like food, wood or paper decomposes, it emits methane into the air. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions globally, after oil and gas systems and agriculture.
Although methane only accounts for about 11% of greenhouse gas emissions and lasts about a dozen years in the air, it traps 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide does. Scientists
estimate that at least 25% of today’s warming is driven by methane from human actions.
“This is the first time that high-resolution satellite images have been used to observe landfills and calculate their methane emissions,” said Joannes Maasakkers, lead author of the study and atmospheric scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research.
“We found that these landfills, which are relatively small compared to city
sizes, are responsible for a large fraction of total emissions from a given area,” he said.
Satellite data to detect emissions is still a relatively new field, but it’s being used more and more to observe gases across the world. It means more independent organizations are tracking greenhouse gases and identifying big emitters, whereas previously local government figures were the only source available.
Which communities are the most affected?
Housing and transportation combined account for more than half of an average families’ spending, according to the Brookings Institution’s Affordability Index. For low-income families, the percentage spent on housing and transportation can be even higher, meaning they’re hit hardest by rising prices.
“People are really struggling right now. They are forgoing childcare, they are not seeking medical care or rationing prescription drugs,” said Langston, who points out that one in three people in the U.S. are at or near poverty.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted many inequalities in society, including who got to work from home.
“The majority of the Latino and immigrant workforce doesn’t have the luxury to work from home,” said Yanira Merino, national president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
Only 16.2% of Latino workers and 19.7% of black workers were able to work from home in 2020, compared to 37% of Asian workers and 29.9% of non-hispanic white workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Low-income families are also more likely to rent their homes, which then makes them more vulnerable to the rising prices of housing, according to Freemark.
Vicente Gonzalez, a postal worker in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood of Los
Angeles, has seen members of his community move farther away because they can’t afford to pay their rent.
“A lot of people are moving to cheaper areas, but there’s no jobs out there so they end up driving all day,” said Gonzalez. “As much as people want to buy an electric car and save gas, they really have no choice.”
The average worker commutes for 26.9 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, workers of color have longer commute times than white workers, regardless of income level, according to data by the National Equity Atlas.
How do experts recommend tackling the issue in the long term?
San Jose State University professor Asha Weinstein Agrawal believes that in order to make a long-term change, government officials need to invest in public transportation but also incentivize the use of fuel efficient vehicles.
“If we truly want to reduce people’s transportation costs, it’s not something you can do in a month. But we should help them get more electric vehicles. That is going to have far more impact, especially low-income families,” she said.
E-bikes or electric vehicles are also a more environmentally-friendly mode of transportation, Freemark said.
Alternatively, both Langston and Freemark believe that raising people’s wages and developing affordable housing would help to create an environment where everyone can weather hard times.