The “methane problem” as an ongoing challenge to climate change communication and understanding. When data estimate uncertainties become a social uncertainty

Climate change is without any doubt a major issue for humankind under several points of view: it poses demographic, economic, ethical, scientific, social, and technological problems, though the major concern is the immense damage caused to ecosystems and biodiversity. The imminent threat to a considerable number of currently living species is now well demonstrated by numerous studies, up to the point where some have argued that the sixth mass extinction of the Phanerozoic Eon is now occurring because of anthropogenic activities. While the climate change process as a whole has been largely described by the scientific community, a major agent of climate change – methane – is still puzzling scientists due to large fluctuations in annual growth rates; these uncertainties may have remarkable consequences on climate change communication, especially in a society that is still struggling to accept the fact that actions have to be taken in order to mitigate the effects of anthropogenic climate change. This paper is aimed at tackling the so called “methane problem” in terms of climate change communication and ultimately propose the fundamentals of a method said communication efforts could be based on, via a proper integration of social, Atmospheric and Earth sciences.