Plants Cause Global Warming
I thought George Bush caused global warming, but some sceintists seem to think that our plants are actually the culprit!
Via Yahoo/Reuters
German scientists have discovered a new source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change.
The culprits are plants.
They produce about 10 to 30 percent of the annual methane found in the atmosphere, according to researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.
The scientists measured the amount of methane released by plants in controlled experiments. They found it increases with rising temperatures and exposure to sunlight.
“Significant methane emissions from both intact plants and detached leaves were observed … in the laboratory and in the field,” Dr Frank Keppler and his team said in a report in the journal Nature.
Methane, which is produced by city rubbish dumps, coal mining, flatulent animals, rice cultivation and peat bogs, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in terms of its ability to trap heat.
Concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere have almost tripled in the last 150 years. About 600 million tonnes worldwide are produced annually.
The scientists said their finding is important for understanding the link between global warming and a rise in greenhouse gases.
It could also have implications for the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for developed countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
Keppler and his colleagues discovered that living plants emit 10 to 100 times more methane than dead plants.
But the study also poses questions, such as how such a potentially large source of methane could have been overlooked and how plants produced it.
January 16, 2006 - 08:01 AM on January 16th, 2006
Just goes to show the enviro-whackos don’t know jack. remember under Reagan when a bush was found to emit hydrocarbon pollution?
January 16, 2006 - 11:26 AM on January 16th, 2006
Stop Global warming do more logging hey it looks like this crap about RAINFORESTS being the lungs of the earth is a whole lot of hogwash and that the tree huggers and enviromenatlists wackos are the ones who are full of HOT AIR
January 16, 2006 - 12:18 PM on January 16th, 2006
PCD I remember when Reagan talked about how decaying organics material in the forest emitted particulate matter (as in the Great Smoky Mountains), which is true, and the Enviro-Whackos and Reagan haters howled and screamed with delight proclaiming “Reagan says trees cause pollution!”
That mischaracterization is in their standard lexicon. To this day if you talk with a Lefty over 30 and say “Reagan said trees cause pollution” you’ll get a visceral response.
Except that what Reagan actually said was quite true, and the point he was making with it as an example was also true.
Just another example of the Dan Rather/NY Times method of attacking a political enemy: Either just make something up completely, then use it as a talking point, or take something out of context, completely mischaracterize it, then repeat it over and over so that the dopes further down your organizational food chain, who have no idea what was really said, believe it just as you said it and also repeat it.
Eventually, it is firmly ensconced in the Leftist talking points library.
January 16, 2006 - 03:25 PM on January 16th, 2006
PCD Is right but watch what happens next, the fact is earth is always having warming times and someday a new great ice age, and so what that is how it works.:wink:
what we little people should be getting mad at is our political people selling the line for big money and control over minds and hearts
January 16, 2006 - 09:56 PM on January 16th, 2006
[...] Earlier today, we posted that plant matter releasing methane has contributed to global warming. Some right-wing nuts have wrongly posted that methane “causes” global warming with the intimation that methane is solely responsible. To wit, they have posted a sassy comment that “I thought George Bush caused global warming, but some scientists seem to think that our plants are actually the culprit!” Such deception and truthiness is typical of the right when the facts work against them. This administration has been a disaster for the environment (among other disasters). It’s time that they be held accountable. Global warming to speed up as carbon levels show sharp rise [...]
January 17, 2006 - 02:32 AM on January 17th, 2006
Fred I see what you are saying, however, has there ever been any society in the history of the human experience in which the people that had the wealth were not effectively or actually in control?
There have been varying degrees of it, but isn’t that just human nature?