Global Warming... a hoax?

**StickyEnd** · 26-11-2009, 00:38

Originally Posted by Schleswig-Holstein

Originally Posted by Booty

Unfortunately, the eminent scientists who are propounding man-made global warming are the same sort of eminent scientists who were predicting a 'new ice age' when I was a kid in the 70s and who were predicting a global catastrophe from the 'millennium bug' in the late 90s. You can hardly blame people for being sceptical about scientific dogma.

This chestnut again?

Read this Booty
http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/15...-89-9-1325.pdf

I fear that you are wasting your time. Anyone that would use terminology such as "scientific dogma" is probably not interested in evidence.

**scoobish** · 26-11-2009, 01:05

Originally Posted by Booty

Schleswig-Holstein

It was a 'chesnut' from group of leading glacial-epoch experts in 1972, who stated the world was 'undoubtedly' heading for a period of serious cooling, possibly within a few hundred years.

Anyway, we have moved on. Apparently cow farts are the current major global warming threat. You couldn't make it up, but I am starting to wonder if someone is.

Ha ha ha :D

**StickyEnd** · 26-11-2009, 01:11

Originally Posted by Booty

Schleswig-Holstein

It was a 'chesnut' from group of leading glacial-epoch experts in 1972, who stated the world was 'undoubtedly' heading for a period of serious cooling, possibly within a few hundred years.

Anyway, we have moved on. Apparently cow farts are the current major global warming threat. You couldn't make it up, but I am starting to wonder if someone is.

Where did you get that chestnut from?

**Booty** · 26-11-2009, 01:20

I heard it on a science programme on Radio 4, which is not generally know for its chestnuttery:

Cow Farts Link

**StickyEnd** · 26-11-2009, 01:44

Originally Posted by Booty

I heard it on a science programme on Radio 4, which is not generally know for its chestnuttery:

Cow Farts Link

It is bollocks. A cow can only release gasses into the atmosphere that it has took out. That is part of the carbon cycle. Fossil fuels put gas into the atmosphere which was removed/trapped 200 million years ago. Not the same thing.

**scoobish** · 26-11-2009, 03:21

RT- report from Russia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFt07eAAQ94

**shape.when.wet** · 26-11-2009, 10:37

Originally Posted by Booty

I heard it on a science programme on Radio 4, which is not generally know for its chestnuttery:

Cow Farts Link

They do emit methane, in large quantities, but not as large as the paddy fields that feed the vast and growing populations of China and India.

**HectortheInspector** · 26-11-2009, 10:58

Originally Posted by shape.when.wet

Originally Posted by Booty

I heard it on a science programme on Radio 4, which is not generally know for its chestnuttery:

Cow Farts Link

They do emit methane, in large quantities, but not as large as the paddy fields that feed the vast and growing populations of China and India.

Not just cows. Almost all livestock (including me after a night on the beer) emit methane, which is quite a powerful 'greenhouse gas'
http://www.ciesin.org/TG/AG/liverear.html

The difference is that unlike paddyfields and swamps which are more natural sources, from decaying plants, the population of intensively farmed livestock has gone up. Therefore, it is not beyond the wit of man to control this source, by reducing the numbers again. There is also research going on into cattle feeds, so that the bacteria in the animal's guts produce less gas.

Ammonia is quite a nasty problem as well, but that often comes either from off-gassing from fertilizer spread on fields, or from poultry farms.

**shape.when.wet** · 26-11-2009, 11:07

Cow's on Actimel. Great. Will make bugger all difference when the permafrost in Siberia and the bottom of the oceans melts releasing billions of tonnes of methane hydrates :D

Neither climate change nor it's prevention suits our lifestyle, I think the question is which will suit it less in the long run.

**HectortheInspector** · 26-11-2009, 11:17

Originally Posted by shape.when.wet

Cow's on Actimel. Great. Will make bugger all difference when the permafrost in Siberia and the bottom of the oceans melts releasing billions of tonnes of methane hydrates :D

Neither climate change nor it's prevention suits our lifestyle, I think the question is which will suit it less in the long run.

Ah, a follower of the climatic catastrophe school! Yes, the modelling does suggest that at certain tilt points all kind of things unexpectedly start unravelling, feeding the accelerating process that will turn the Earth into another Venus, hot enough to melt lead on the surface, suphuric acid rain, etc.

I have a bit more faith. This is a tough old planet, its seen good times and bad, and has always bounced back. You are right though. Our lifestyle is done for. It's really a question of whether Homo Sapiens is still around to have a lifestyle, however reduced, or follow the dinosaurs into the fossil record.

Of course, if we all go really 'green' the temperatures might not rise to those tipping points. Just a thought.

**shape.when.wet** · 26-11-2009, 11:26

Originally Posted by HectortheInspector

Ah, a follower of the climatic catastrophe school! Yes, the modelling does suggest that at certain tilt points all kind of things unexpectedly start unravelling, feeding the accelerating process that will turn the Earth into another Venus, hot enough to melt lead on the surface, suphuric acid rain, etc.

Of course! It makes for great telly - esp those BBC1/Channel 4 documentaries about The Earth. I find myself looking forward to when Yellowstone finally blows and throws the northern hemisphere back to the stone age, it's the misanthrope in me. Speaking of which, I'm going to see 2012 tonight. Top stuff.

Also what's good for a laugh, is going up to a climatologist and saying, "You know that 'The Day After Tomorrow' film, that could happen, couldn't it. When will it happen?"

**Booty** · 26-11-2009, 14:18

Perhaps it was farting that did for the dinosaurs.

The Kiwis have gone a step further. They are proposing to impose a fart tax:

NZ Fart Tax Link (NB Not dated 1 April)

How precisely does one measure a cow's methane emissions? Farts and burps are presumably composed of several gasses, which are emitted at different rates and concentrations.

As s.w.w points out, we are busy trying to limit cow farts, when the thin crust over Yellowstone could erupt tomorrow and wipe out half the world's population (and leave the other half in a bit of a mess).

**FORMER_FYRDMAN** · 26-11-2009, 15:35

Originally Posted by neil2554

(edited for brevity) Now Peak Oil; that's something that does ke ck my pants.

Well don't let it - it's another eco-scare created by, very basically, deliberately mis-understanding the oil and gas industry's exploration and production forecasts and cycles and assuming that technology, particularly around deep-water exploration and reservoir management, stands still.

To give you an example, the seventies recovery rate prediction for the Forties field was 1.8 billion barrels. In 2000 that was increased to 2.6 billion with the expectation of a rise to circa 3 billion.

As oil becomes more expensive we'll simply switch to other technologies as they become more economic and this will happen long before the last drop is burned or turned into chocolate or aspirin. As they say, the Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of rocks.

**HectortheInspector** · 26-11-2009, 17:41

Originally Posted by Booty

Perhaps it was farting that did for the dinosaurs.

The Kiwis have gone a step further. They are proposing to impose a fart tax:

NZ Fart Tax Link (NB Not dated 1 April)

How precisely does one measure a cow's methane emissions? Farts and burps are presumably composed of several gasses, which are emitted at different rates and concentrations.

As s.w.w points out, we are busy trying to limit cow farts, when the thin crust over Yellowstone could erupt tomorrow and wipe out half the world's population (and leave the other half in a bit of a mess).

Methane has been blamed for several possible mass extinctions. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0828071722.htm
Not farts though.

The University of Melbourne have run into some problems with their fartometers...

"Professor Richard Eckard says beef cattle can emit anywhere from 50 to 90 kilograms of methane per year, the variance largely dependent on how much and what they eat.

He says conducting the research can be a difficult procedure particularly in the pastoral zones of places like the Northern Territory.

"It's extremely difficult. It's not something that can be done easily. We have stainless steel cabinets, large cabinets that these cows go inside and we close the doors for two or three days and measure all the gases in and out to get a good estimate.

"We've got some techniques we use in the field but when you go out in the field and you're measuring, you need high concentrations of methane.

"So it works well for southern dairy where you can put three or four cows in a hectare. But in the Northern territory where you might have one per 40, you're just not getting enough concentrations of methane to be able to measure it in the field."

**bobthedog** · 26-11-2009, 18:26

The farting cow thing was a policy being discussed by the Department for Health and they were proposing that we eat 1/3 of the national herd. They started formulating policy and a campaign before somebody pointed out to them that they:

1. Had not discussed this with DEFRA
2. Were advised that if we go on to an "eat beef" campaign there was no guarantee that we would be eating British Beef/Lamb, that it would be imported.
3. Nobody had consulted the Farming community about this move.

It was discussed on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today...00/8380164.stm

You couldnt make this up, what a useless shower this government really is!