Cow Farts causing Global Warming!?

Scientists and farmers around the world are debating a very serious subject at the moment. You may not know it, but cows are actually one of the rudest animals around. In fact, they burp and fart so often and in such huge figures that the methane they release may be an affecting part of global warming. Yes, they are really talking about farting and burping cows.
Why are scientists talking about this? Good question, let's start with the science behind passing gas. Farts and burps are essentially pockets of gas that get released from human and animal bodies. Some of it is created inside our bodies as we digest food and some is ingested, when we eat or talk. This mixture is not useful to us, so our bodies propel it out as best they can, “passing gas or flatulence.”
One of the gases found in farts and burps is methane. Certain amounts of methane in the atmosphere are normal. Right along with other greenhouse gases, methane collects in the sky and traps warm air around our planet. The problem starts when the layer of greenhouse gases is too thick and too much heat is shut in. This effect is called global warming my friends!
A report published in the state of California a while back declared that dairy cows in the area were producing almost 20 lbs of gas every year. That is a ridiculously large amount of gas. If that number is correct, it could mean that cow farts are causing more greenhouse gases than pollution from cars, since California has millions of cows.
Scientists around our globe have known for a long time that animal gases could be trouble. What they cannot agree on is how big of a problem it can actually be. Even if scientists manage to measure the size of the farts or burps, they then have to work out how much methane they contain. It is very hard to measure just how much methane an animal is burping and farting out.
A Swedish university has taken this matter very seriously and has been awarded close to $600,000 in support to research this occurrence. Jan Bertilsson of the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences stated that 20 cows will be involved in the study.
By attaching special collars around the cow’s necks, they hope to calculate the amount of methane released with each burp depending on the kind of food they consume. Mind you this is only a study on burps not farts.
I am not a scientist or anything but it looks like if we want to make a real effort at slowing down our climate change, we simply can’t only go after the cows. It just doesn’t seem to me to be the only source of the problem. What does the rest of the planet think?

Earth Hour!

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world's first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming....more


By signing up you are supporting Earth Hour's aim to reach more than one billion people in 1000 cities around the world in 2009. Earth Hour is inviting communities, business and governments to switch off lights for one hour at 8:30pm on Saturday March 28, sending a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action.

Cars and Global Warming

One of the most eye-opening conclusions of reports is that the vehicles we choose today will affect our lives for time to come. Astonishingly, the largest category of current on the road polluters is the small car. We ask ourselves why? Well, simply because there are so many of them on the road. Cars in and light trucks our nations are a huge supply of global warming pollution. United States automobiles emit more than 333 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, which is more than 1/5 of the nation's total CO2 emissions.
Compared with the rest of the planet, American automobiles emissions are excessively high. With only five percent of the world's population and thirty percent of the world's automobiles, the United States put in forty eight percent of the world's automotive CO2 emissions.
Any true effort to battle global warming has to include cutting automobile emissions. Acting now is crucial to slowing global warming and reducing air pollution.
Americans don't all have to drive hybrids to make a change in our nation. And, while we support everyone to use different forms of transportation whenever it is possible, the certainty is that cars are a big part of our American ways of life.

We should be thinking to:
• Put public pressure on the automobile industry to maintain a comprehensive national global warming policy.
• Educate vehicle owners and drivers on what they can do to decrease emissions.
• Explore ways we Americans can do our part to progress fuel efficiency and cut global warming pollution from America's automobiles.
So, if we all did our part to decrease automobile emissions and if all of us purchased the most fuel efficient vehicles that met our needs, and if all of us found ways to drive a less, if all of us did our best to keep our vehicles maintained, and if all of us contributed in prioritizing global warming as a issue in our daily lives, we would considerably decrease global warming pollution from America's vehicles.

Second Cause of Global Warming

Chlorofluorocarbons were introduced to the world in the 1920s and are used in a range of industrial, commercial, and residential uses and is a big part of Global Warming. Chlorofluorocarbons, along with others like chlorine- and bromine-containing compounds, have been implicated in the boost of reduction of ozone in our planet’s stratosphere. This stuff is non-flammable, non-toxic, and non-reactive with other chemical composites. These nice safety characteristics make them useful as coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators, propellants for aerosol sprays, and blowing agents. Production and use of Chlorofluorocarbons increased as a demand by us humans for production of these common products.
It was not until 1973 that chlorine was found to be a catalytic agent in ozone devastation. Catalytic obliteration of ozone gets rid of the odd O2 species while leaving chlorine unchanged. We knew that this was potentially damaging to the ozone layer, but beyond question evidence of stratospheric ozone depletion was not exposed until 1984. An intricate situation of atmospheric dynamics, chemical reactions, and solar radiation, was found to explain the abnormal low levels of ozone during the polar springtime. Current missions to the Arctic areas show that related processes can occur in the northern hemisphere, but to a lesser level due to warmer temperatures. We as a nation have to do something soon before this climate change takes a real toll on our planet!

The Main Cause for Global Warming

We humans who think of ourselves as the most intelligent things on this planet are intentionally or unintentionally destroying our own surroundings. One of the chief causes for global warming can be accredited to the behaviors of humans. It took more than twenty years for the world to finally accept that we humans are causing global warming with the emission of greenhouse gases which include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide etc. the gases have formed an effect of green house on the earth’s exterior which prevents the reflection of the sun’s rays and therefore causes the boost in temperature. The radical boost in the emission of carbon dioxide in the last 30 years caused by burning fossil fuels has been recognized as the major reason for the change of temperature in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide concentration in the air has amplified because of the emissions from power plants, airplanes, cars, industries etc. one more reason for it is deforestation. Forests have been reduced making way for cultivation, industries and cities. The vegetation was natural regulators of carbon dioxide that controlled its level’s in the atmosphere. Eighty percent or more of the worldwide energy claim is currently supplied by the fossil fuels oil, coal or gas. It will be unfeasible to find alternative sources, which could restore fossil fuels in the short or medium term. The energy demand is just too high.

Another subject is the non-renewable traits of fossil fuels. It took our planet millions of years to produce these resources, while we will have used them up in about the next few decades. Alone the lessening supply will not make it possible to carry on as usual for a longer time.