Methane (Page 9)

…but somehow familiar – Something that not everyone knows is that an odor of rotten eggs can signal a sudden outsourcing of methane gas, due to global warming. Well, that smell has been in the St. Louis area recently.

Authorities say that it’s not dangerous and it?s NOT a natural gas leak. In the January 26th edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Carolyn Tuft quotes St. Louis Fire Department Captain Robert Keuss as saying, “On Sunday, we responded to 20 calls all across the city and that was just from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m? It doesn’t have that natural gas smell to it. The smell has hit a pretty widespread area, but no one has been able to determine its origin.”
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Researchers have discovered that millions of tons of methane (a gas that is 20 times worse than CO2 when it comes to global warming) are being released into the atmosphere RIGHT NOW as the permafrost melts in the Arctic.

In the Tuesday, September 23 edition of the Independent, Steve Connor writes, “Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species [in the past].”
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In the US, bovine growth hormone has been used to increase milk yields for 15 years, and many consumers are starting to reject hormone-treated milk in favor of organic. But dairy farmers point out that when cows make more milk, fewer cows are needed, thus reducing a major impact on global warming.

Researchers have discovered that, compared to a non-supplemented population, giving rbST to one million cows would enable the same amount of milk to be produced using 157,000 fewer cows. The nutrient savings would be 491,000 metric tons of corn, 158,000 metric tons of soybeans, and total feedstuffs would be reduced by 2,300,000 metric tons. Producers could reduce cropland use by 219,000 hectares and reduce 2.3 million tons of soil erosion annually.
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The level of methane?one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases?rose last year, after being stable for a decade, and researchers now think these emissions are coming from wetlands around the melting Arctic region. A Canadian expedition to the Arctic has found “vast cracks,” stretching for over 10 miles, in the ice cap there.

In BBC News, David Shukman quotes Canadian expedition member Derek Mueller as saying, “I was astonished to see these new cracks. It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away.”

Art credit: gimp-savvy.com

When you hear about global warming, don’t forget where you heard about it first!

To learn more, click here and here.

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