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Did You Learn Anything About Methane?

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From the lens Methane and Climate Change.

If you have anything to say on the issue of methane as a greenhouse gas (particularly if you learned anything here) then please leave your comments here.

  • sherridan Apr 21, 2012 @ 6:58 am | delete
    Great lens - knew about the cows, but had never heard that termites contributed!
  • RenaissanceWoman2010 Oct 23, 2011 @ 6:04 pm | delete
    Wow. I had no idea that termites and rice paddies increased methane emissions. I learned so much here. Thank you for a very informative and interesting article about methane production. *Blessed*
  • Canimbill Nov 6, 2010 @ 1:52 pm | delete
    Great Lens, many people don't realize that there are other gases besides carbon dioxide that have a huge impact on climate change and global warming. Ozone is another and warming to causes more water to enter the atmosphere in the form of water vapor which causes further warming. I have been working on local adaptation to climate change and reporting it on my blog at OneMansCarbon.com.
  • HarmoniousAvenger Jul 12, 2010 @ 9:15 pm | delete
    Do you have a scientific reference for the livestock vs. wild animals? True, we have cleared a lot of land for livestock. But we have also fenced in quite a bit of land that was once grazing land. Think of the Great Plains -- once a gigantic grazing ground for bison and pronghorn.
  • nickupton Jul 12, 2010 @ 10:18 pm | delete
    I don't have a reference for this; but whilst the Great Plains (and Steppes) would have provided homes for great herds of grazing animals, they would have been feeding on unfertilized grass at natural levels. It is quite clear to see that as nations become more developed, the demand for meat rises and more meat is raised. Meat is generally produced using intensive or semi-intensive methods whereby animals are kept on land far in excess of natural densities through a combination of fertilized pasture and supplementary feed. In addition, grazing animals have been introduced to lands where they would not naturally occur and are raised in huge numbers. The number of sheep in New Zealand alone would almost certainly equate to most if not all the natural Pronghorn numbers on the untouched Great Plains. Over 1 million Water Buffalo in Thailand are kept as work animals, tilling soil that mostly would have been unoccupied by grazing animals - the natural population would have only been a fraction, and there are far more water buffalo in other Southeast Asian nations, all populations of which are many times greater than natural numbers would be.

    Whilst I am not sure if methane from livestock is a major contributor to climate change, it seems quite clear that under human intervention, the numbers of grazing animals in the world are far higher than they would be naturally.
  • mitchdcba May 13, 2010 @ 12:46 am | delete
    Probably we´ll have to wait for the changing climate to bring home the evidence bluntly. Environmental policies that are in place are being sidelined in the fight to return to growth.

    climate change
  • Jun 23, 2009 @ 8:16 am | delete
    I didn't know that rice was bad for environment. I will eat egg noodles and not rice.
  • Gully Jun 13, 2009 @ 3:57 am | delete
    I was reading in "The Times" that huge numbers of cattle emit more greenhouse gases than cars and planes.
  • CheekyMonkey Dec 2, 2008 @ 12:12 am | delete
    Interesting lens. This is not something that people talk about very often.
  • spirituality Jun 17, 2008 @ 3:09 am | delete
    Listing this on my Environment lensography - Great lens.
  • chemrat Jun 14, 2008 @ 11:10 am | delete
    Nice lens. I like the way that you offer information about various opinions. We definitely want people to make informed decisions about the environment. I do get frustrated with the skeptics who are skeptical for purely political reasons, but all sides have zealots. I'll lens roll and favorite this!

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nickupton

I have had a keen interest in wildlife and the environment since I was a small child and in 2007 I graduated with a first class honours degree in Wild... more »

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