Watching CNN yesterday and there was an article about global warming, is this true and what can be done?

Question

It sounded like a wind up to me but apparently methane gas is 3 times more efficient at trapping heat from the suns rays in the planets atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

School boy giggles aside, this is caused by the release of gases during digestion process and a major source of this is from cowes and pigs.

What are we going do about this one?

Answer 1

Global warming is real. The science is redily available and simple enough to understand.

Why some Americans are actually proud of being wasteful is beyond me. 4% of People 25% of waste.

Sounds pretty selfish to me.

By the way the quality of life enjoyed by Europeans and Japanese is not so different from the Americans, but the per capita waste is less than half!

Yes methane is a far more potent green house gas than CO2 50x I learnt, but the 23x makes sense as methane does not rmain in the atmosphere forever. So the 50x is reduced to 23 as a time average.  

Other gasses are up to 2500 times as potent so even small amounts make a difference. But all in all CO2 has the biggest effect because we produce so much more of it, and methane is second most important.

Ruminants (cows etc) produce a lot of methane during digestion of grass.

What can we do about it? Well, the average Westerner eats about 3 times as much meat as they can actually use for protein, the excess is simply used by the body as fuel in a less efficient process than using starch or fats. So we can eat less meat.

No need to become Vegan. But eating less meat will make a difference and be healthier for you as well.

For the person who suggested we can't /don't know how gasses operate in the atmosphere, sorry mate, but actually we do know, its not that hard. A lot of that part of the understanding is pretty accurately worked out. There are still plenty of grey areas, but this is not one of them.

Funny how some people are all to happy to use science and technology when it suits them, but then turn around and totally discredit the whole idea of science and the scientific method when the results are uncomfortable for them.

Answer 2

Quite honestly, if there were no gases in the earth's atmosphere trapping the sun's heat we'd all be dead. It's not like the methane gets released and just sits there, the earth's atmosphere is extremely dynamic and ever changing. It is disingenuous for CNN (or anyone else for that matter) to pretend to know that methane gas is a problem. There is so much that is unknown about how the atmosphere works that in truth the story is misleading (read: a lie).

Answer 3

Why would you take seriously anything from the Clinton News Network (CNN) is all I want to know!!!

Answer 4

Methane is 23 times more efficient at retaining heat then carbon dioxide.  It's measured using a scale called Global Warming Potential (GWP) where carbon dioxide has a fixed value of 1 and everything else is measured in relation to this (time also has to be taken into consideration as the effectiveness of greenhouse gases changes with time).  The GWP of 23 for methane is a 100 year GWP meaning that after 100 years it's still 23 times more serious than CO2.

Methane is released in large amounts through farting and burping - humans add about 10 billion litres a day of methane through farting (1 to 1.5 litres per person per day), this is tiny compared to the amount produced by cattle which worldwide adds up to something like half a trillion litres a day,  That's a lot of gas and is almost one fifth of all the methane released into the atmosphere each year.

As for what can be done - not a lot unless everyone becomes vegan (then the amount of human produced methane might rapidly increase).

Answer 5

Will probably get lots of thumbs down for this, but part of me wonders if we shouldnt worry????

Since 1970 global temperatures on earth have increased by 0.5c. We are told because of the greenhouse effect - Co2/methane etc.

Now look at Mars. We have released no greenhouse gasses there, yet since 1970 global temperatures on Mars have increased by 0.5c. Exactly the same as earth.

I dont want to stick my head in the sand, but a lot of governments & organisations seem to be making a huge amount of money out of global warming & all i have seen is theory & correlations. I, & a growing number of people are becoming fed up with this. I want to see scientific PROOF of the exact breakdown or our effect on temperature. I am intelligent enough to understand pretty much any science they can throw at me. Lots of people claim to have that proof, but no-one will show it to me.

P.s. A vegetarian produces much less methane than a meat eater. The difference has the equivalent greenhouse effect (so i'm told) as a large U.S. V8 truck.

i.e. become vegetarian & save the planet as well as animals!

Answer 6

THis is not true and we can't do anything about it.  Please watch the Global Warming Special on May 2nd on Headline News (204 on Direct TV) at 7:00, 9:00 or Midnight Eastern Time.  YOu will get the truth in this one hour special.  This is way overhyped and just another reason to tax us to death and force us to buy the bogus carbon credits.  Global Warming is a trojan horse for Socialism, wake up Americans. Global warming is at the fore front because politicians found how to use a new platform to get re-elected. The world leaders use it because they found ways to make money at it. This is a made up problem just like Global Cooling in the 1970's. Wake up people. I agree we need to be more efficient with our resources, and we should fine and jail companies who are dumping into our rivers maliciously. I want to stop the raiforest destruction, but to say that global warming is a serious man made issue and we need to destroy the American economy and bow down to the rest of the world certainly does not float my boat. Follow the money on this one and you will see that it is all for political gain and grant money for those scientists who profit off of the government if global warming stays at the front of the issues. Look deep into the Keoto (sp?) Treaty, first of all they took jets to a non-central resort location. Not very environmentally concious. THen in the parameters of the treaty they have a clause that makes it so you can buy or sell polution credits. This is all about shifting wealth and breaking down the United States. This is painfully obvious, just look at peoples agenda. The earth's mean temperature has risen .6 degrees C in the past 125 years. Greenland's icecaps have gotten colder in the past 10 years. The Scientists who do not gain anything on their posisition will tell you that the earth has a natural progression and this is what we are seeing. The UN report is made up of POLITICIANS not a good spread of scientists. THere are as many or more scientists who believe that man in NOT the reason and it is over hyped, but their voice is not heard in the LIberal Mainstream Media. This issue is 99% political, and an attempt to make the USA a socialist nation, and eventually communisim. WAKE UP AMERICA, IT IS TIME TO BE AMERICANS. FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. STOP THE LIES