Guess What? Humans Actually Helped Curb Methane Gas Increases
- Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:19pm by
Liz Klimas
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In the last two decades of the 20th century up through 2006, scientists observed a reduced growth rate of atmospheric methane levels. While two papers released in the journal Nature are divided on the cause, both teams agree that human activities have lead to slower growth of atmospheric methane.
BBC reports one team of researchers from University of California, Irvine believe increased use of natural gas and more efficient use of fossil fuels have lead to a decrease in methane:
“Methane became economically valuable only during the second half of the 20th Century,” said Dr Murat Aydin from the University of California, Irvine. ”We think this had a role in it. We’re not suggesting we used less fossil fuel, but because we were more careful about capturing the natural gas and using it as an energy resource, emissions of these gases into the atmosphere declined at the end of the 20th Century.”
A switch from rice paddy farmers using organic fertilizers to artificial is one theory for a reduced methane growth rate. (ITC)
A different team of researchers from UC-Irvine came up with a different conclusion by linking a switch to artificial over organic fertilizers:
Traditionally rice farmers have used organic manure which contains high levels of methane. By using artificial fertilisers, the farmers have considerably reduced this amount.
“Approximately half of the decrease in methane can be explained by reduced emissions from rice agriculture in Asia associated with increases in fertiliser application and reductions in water use,” says the lead author Dr Fuu Ming Kai.
Still, this second team did not find efficiency related to a decline in methane growth rate. Methane expert Paul Fraser from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research — who released a paper in 2008 stating that after eight years of near zero growth in methane emissions, levels were on the rise again — was quoted by BBC:
“I think both studies are actually suggesting that human activities are playing a very important role in determining the methane levels in the atmosphere,” he explained.
Methane, a greenhouse gas, traps more than 20 times more atmospheric heat than carbon dioxide and ABC Science reports that 60 percent of atmospheric methane is caused by human activities, which include farming and burning of fossil fuels. According to EPA, natural sources of methane include wetlands, oceans and forest fires.
We recently reported on skepticism among climate science as a leading scientist is being investigated for scientific misconduct and NASA data has revealed that the Earth is warming slower than what climate forecasts expected. With this division between causes of a decreased growth rate in atmospheric methane, BBC writes that according to Murat Aydin, both these papers suggest human activity plays a role in methane levels and it would be a mistake to add uncertainty of these papers to skepticism:
“As we use more and more fossil fuels, you can be sure it will start creeping up again slowly, I think it demonstrates pretty clearly that human activities have direct and pretty profound impacts on the levels of these gases in the atmosphere.”
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Comments (42)
Uechi
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 9:15pmYeajh they do that by eating cows! Sorry palnt eaters and veggiphiles.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 9:24pmPlease! It’s from eating those nasty cows, one bite at a time. I promise to keep up the battle as long as the A1 holds out.
Report Post »affinnity
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 8:23pmI have been a human methane contributor for many years. It makes me feel good to know how much I am helping curb methane gas increases.
Report Post »TRILO
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 8:15pmWhat a bunch of BS. So if the rice farmers are not using the manure where is it going? Is the manure just disappearing? This just sounds like some gimmick promoted by big agri-business to get people to use/buy their chemical fertilizers rather than the organic manure. No thanks. I’ll stick to the natural and organic way to fertilize my garden. I have a horse and therefore an endless supply.
Report Post »cloudsofwar
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 6:53pmbrought to you by………eat more beans.
Report Post »AzSage
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 6:44pmI meant Beano.
Report Post »AzSage
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 6:44pmWanna reduce methane discharge? Try Beno.
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 6:39pmOh, I forgot to add this to my last comment. Barney Frank can reduce his methane levels by just sitting on it………………….
Report Post »Bernard
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:52pmThe article mentioned one theory that methane in the atmosphere was reduced due to rice farmers in Asia switching from cow dung to artificial fertilizer. India being the world’s largest rice producer and number of cattle (281 million cattle) the unused cow dung would be great to make methane for the energy industry even it is is at a village scale.
Report Post »bhelmet
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:45pmGARBAGE on methane and forest fires – unless methane is the cause – it sure is NOT a by-product. EPA BS. CLEAN Combustion by-products are CO2 and CO with CO increasing the less efficient the combustion is. Methane is produced by decomposition and metabolic processes. Methane CAN start a fire, but is not a product of one.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:59pmBack in the 70′s, my older brother caught his pants on fire by igniting methane.
Report Post »HD Veteran
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:42pmWow, shocked.
Imagine if word got out about Gore, and progressives could read and comprehend the truth.
Let’s give it a spin:
Report Post »http://www.realchange.org/gore.htm#pollution
capitalismrocks
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:41pmOMG!!! Don’t let the Eco Police hear this – its blasphemy! O of C is going to loose its membership in the Al Gore global ponzi-scheme club if they keep this up, how dare they tell the truth, just who do they think they are…. Conservatives ?!?!? Bah…. the Truth, who needs truth, it gets in the way of the Eco Ponzi scammers dream of bilking billions…. this is not going to look good at the next Sierra Club meeting I can tell you that! ;-)
Report Post »Gary_K
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:27pmNow if we could curb all the hot gasses coming from Obama and his minions.
Report Post »weneedrubio
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:25pm60% of the methane in the world is man made. BULL…T to coin a phrase. Scientists are so full of sh..themselves these days that it is impossible to trust anyone on anything. I believe that doctors are doing the same thing in terms of treating the symptoms and not the illness. We would save trillions in Medicare/medicaid if they would stop filling everyone up with drugs. You think your teenagers are high, go talk to their grandparents.
Report Post »rose-ellen
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:40pmvaccinations are particulary egregious and while people are starving to death in afrrica ,aid groups are there hell bent on vaccinating people dying from lack of food and water.When my child was an infant ,she had a high fever and i took fer to the pediatrician;the doctors’ first and primary concern was whether she could give her a vaccination [or two].My husband and i walked out and took our baby to the hospital emergency room where she had to be put on iv’s and wrapped in cold sheets to bring down the fever.
Report Post »nysparkie
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 10:12amROSE_ELLEN: Your not talking about the Vets Office are you?
Report Post »SikTwistedFreek
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:20pmDoes this me Ted Turner has extra time before he starts cannibalizing his fellow citizens?
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2008/04/02/turner-iraqi-insurgents-patriots-inaction-warming-cannibalism
Report Post »kindling
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:20pmI’m sorry but this can’t be good. There was a time when there were great herds of animals roaming the earth and you will never convince me they did not produce enormous amounts of methane. It is a natural part of life and must do something somewhere in the life cycle. I wish the Progressives would stop taking small truths and wrapping big lies around them and using those lies to try to control us. Gas is a fact of life…..just ask Barney Frank.
Report Post »elosogrande
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:19pmMan, you probably thought fat Al Gore was pissed off yesterday!
Wait ’till tomorrow – yikes!
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 7:47pmhe could just taste those cap and trade millions……… he will freak out
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:47pmThis is bad news. Climate change turned out to be a hoax, and the earth is actually cooling now. We need MORE CO2, MORE methane, MORE pollution. Human-kind literally depends upon us belching out as many burned hydrocarbons as we can.
I wonder if Allgore will establish a NEGATIVE carbon tax credit trading system. Ya think?
Report Post »Fly Old Glory 24/7 365
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:02pmhow do we get the cows to pass gas more often?
Report Post »AVATARBABY
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:44pmI think Barney Frank on MSNBC the other day renders this article moot. (moo?)
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:00pmNo, he renders it toot. Sorry, I just had to go there, didn’t I? :)
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:19pmBawney Fwank couldn’t help it! His life style makes him a little loose in the caboose!
Report Post »AVATARBABY
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:41pmHow odd this articles comes just 2 days after Barney Frank spewed methane on MSNBC!
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:33pmThe real reason is that increase in unemployment means less car emmissions and more cheap forms of food and that is the reason my methane levels have decreased. Sad for us all; you left wing perverted progressives have gotten your way by allowing for our economy to be destroyed you b@stards. :)
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:32pmAll the global warming myths will fall one by one.
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:40pmAnd yet Al will go on.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:44pmWhat myths? Nobody said that methane wasn‘t still increasing or that it isn’t bad that it’s increasing. They just said that it was increasing less quickly. If it weren‘t for all of us hungry humans there wouldn’t be hundreds of millions of acres of rice fields or hundreds of millions of cattle in the first place.
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:08pmWWCD……..What would Chet do……..about the number of hungry humans?
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:19pmChet, the Japanese have engineered some new burgers you may be interested in…. It makes use of recycling technology and it takes care of all those cattle you’re so worried about…..
Report Post »AVATARBABY
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:34pmI remember playing a kids game called “Hungry Hippos”. They ate white marbles. Chet, did you invent one called “Hungry Humans”? Do they eat those Japanese burgers Biohazard23 referenced. If so, they’ll need s**t eating grins painted on their faces.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 4:21amWhat would I do about the number of hungry humans? Nothing drastic. Just try to convince people that damaging the environment really is dangerous and that population growth is a driving force behind it, and encourage them to slow it down. Convince people that they should eat fewer cows because it‘s good for their own health and if we could only raise as many as we could feed with grass they wouldn’t produce so much methane. Legalize hemp because industrial hemp used to be the biggest crop in Iowa and politicians wouldn’t have to support corn subsidies to get elected President if they could grow it again.
Of course I know that none of this will happen, because capitalism is a pyramid scheme slowing down population growth would slow down economic growth, and some major religions encourage uncontrolled population growth to compete with each other. And we can never use hemp oil to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels because somebody somewhere might grow a few acres of the good stuff and have a little fun.
I guess the problem will start to correct itself when things get so bad that people have to eat each other.
Report Post »Seagal45
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:31pmHA HA!! Step away from the bean burittos!
Report Post »MontyRay
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:31pmIf we could render Al Gore mute, we could save the planet for another 10,000,000 years
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:28pmOkay, guess enough people are lighting those matches around the methane producing spots of the world and gradually torching each and every one.
Report Post »jim
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:24pmEating at Tommy’s Hamburgers plays a VERY important role in methane levels.
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