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.'"

Comments

Re:Vegetarians are bad for the planet

[Comatose51]

"Cattle can graze on unirrigated badlands where crop lands are impractical."

The problem with your argument is that in reality the vast, vast majority of cows are raised on flat land and are fed corn instead of grass. As a rule of thumb, for each step you go up in the food pyramid, only 10% of energy is retained. Putting cows between a person and the vegetable (corn in this case) simply adds inefficiency in the energy transfer. So instead of feeding 10 vegetarians, you're now feeding 1 meat eater. Your argument would hold more water IF cows were free to range on land that's not suitable for farming instead of being force feed corn.