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Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Combat Global Warming
realwx writes "New Zealand scientists have found a bacterium, named 'Methylokorus infernorum,' that eats a key global warming chemical. Found in a hot spring, the bug lives off of methane emissions from geothermically active areas. A scientist quoted in the article stated that a cubic meter of liquid containing the bacterium would consume about 11kg of methane each year. 'But Dr Stott cautioned that such an application was probably some years into the future. He said it was unlikely the micro-organism, which prefers acidic conditions of about 60C, could ever be added to sheep or cows' food to stop the animals releasing methane.'"
Plant more fucking trees. Encourage rooftop gardens. Increase Earth's surface albedo with reflective roofs. The problem's already been solved and these scientists are just ignoring reliable solutions because they want delicious patent money.
We'd be nobodies. Women won't want to fuck us. Rivals won't shrink away in terror and awe.
No, we need all the trophies we can get.
Won't somebody think of the children we'll have in the future after impressing hot women with our obvious prowess? Why won't you think of those children?
The flaw was that it was softened to reduce the impact of the claims in order to curry the favor of some governments, not that it was exagerrated, and that's why many scientists sought to remove themselves from the final report.
So, 1 cubic meter will take care of 11 kg. How much to take care of our 330 teragram annual emission? A couple dozen cubic kilometers?
Because other experiments in the past to release some kind of life form to combat something we deem as inconvenient has worked soooooo well: * introducing rabbits in Australia * introducing foxes to eat said rabbits * crossing European and African honey bees to get the best of both worlds... * snakeheads in Eastern USA * american frogs in europe And about another 1000 examples of introducing animals outside their natural habitat have all worked out so well. So, yeah, let's release those bugs!
Anyone ever get the feeling that we are going to really muck things up by trying to "fix" things? We introduce new species of animal or bacteria to an environment to control naturally occurring beings, then these predators completely take over and become a problem in and of themselves. So and on so forth.
I have to believe sometimes that we as humans are simply not smart enough, or perhaps do not see enough of the big picture, to understand the intricacies of the world or the universe to implement such grand scale processes.
Warming. A better solution would be to force everyone to become Vegans and eliminate meat eating. Not only will that eliminate CO2 and methane, but it will be a whole lot better for the animals. After meat eating is banned go over to solar and wind for our energy needs. Those are the only two ways to combat global warming.
Methylokorus infernorum. What consumes it when it gets out of control. I am being corny and soy-ey. (sorry)
Still, the globe on which we currently reside is going through changes. I am sure we play a part, but let us not get an ego. This planet has known this for some time longer than us.
Reducing our negative impacts and increasing our positive cannot be wrong by definition in my book. We can only do positive together.
We win together or suffer without.
Should not critique others' vocabulary, those who use 'LOL'.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
wrong. populations in many western countries have actually dropped. if it wasn't for migration many would be in decline.
the earths population is commonly estimated to peak at 20 billion with current trends.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
"Beef production is horribly wasteful"
fuck off it is. you clearly have never seen or know fuck all about the slaughter production line.
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The red meat seems to have clogged your brain arteries.
NOTHING is wasted. the skin is used for leather, the head, hoofs, bones and other products not used for human consumption are turned into pet food. fuck even a cows gal stones are ground up and sold.
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That's the harvesting you are talking of, not the production.
in comparision growing vegetables is VERY wasteful because a large portion of the crop is wasted due to pests and spoilage. it also requires MORE LAND then beef.
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Do you really think any beef you eat nowadays ate grass only for a couple of years? Those days are long over.
Beef requires 25 kilocalories fodder input for 1 calorie meat output, _that's_ wasteful. Instead of producing beef fodder, you could feed 25 times more people with vegetables and they would live decades longer on top.
Hmmm, I don't think that would do any good; methane is not produced in the stomach, but later on in the digestive process. Having bacteria in a cow's stomach will not reduce it's methane production.