Rolaids for Cows

  Rolaids for Cows

The IPCC assessment reports are issued about every five or six years as a
review of the current understanding from latest research and modeling on
climate change. For those of you who do not know it, the IPCC is a United
Nations program. I is conducted under the auspices of the United Nations
Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization and
about 2,500 scientists worldwide participate in it so it is no lightweight
organization. That does not mean there can't be some political influence
on its decisions, but it is for the most part apolitical. The positions
are peer reviewed and criticized and the conclusions are pretty
substantially representative of the greater scientific community and
they strive to achieve rigorous and balanced conclusions.

What is methane? It is the principal component of natural gas.  It occurs
in anaerobic environments, like inside a cow's stomach. It is a byproduct
of rice harvestation. It rises into the atmosphere where it absorbs
infrared radiation which otherwise would escape into space. It thus
contributes to greenhouse effects (GHGs). It is 21 times more effective at
warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (by weight). Methane's chemical
life is about 12 years which is relatively short so if we could put a
methane vacumn cleaner into the atmosphere we might be able to gather it
all up. Just something to think about and something to fund by the
Congress in lieu of wooden arrows.

OR, some bright scientist can invent rolaids for cows.

Hank Roth
POINTER: Follow the links from http://pnews.org/ or http://inyourface.info