Underwater animals fart greenhouse gas: study
March 3, 2009
Freshly harvested mussels being processed at a farm. Humans and farm animals were known to emit harmful greenhouse gases through digestion, but German researchers said Tuesday that mussels, freshwater snails and other underwater creatures are also culprits, releasing laughing gas.
Humans and farm animals were known to emit harmful greenhouse gases through digestion, but German researchers said Tuesday that aquatic worms and bugs are also culprits, releasing laughing gas.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institut and Denmark's Aarhus University found that mussels, freshwater snails and other underwater creatures release nitrous oxide -- laughing gas -- when nitrate is present in water.
"There's nitrate in water that has been polluted by humans, so the more we pollute, the higher the production of this problematic gas will be," Fanni Aspetsberger from the institute told AFP on Tuesday.
Aspetsberger added that no quantitative data were available, but that it could be "seriously detrimental" to the climate if nitrate pollution continues to rise the way it has over recent years.
Laughing gas is one of many greenhouse gasses that has been released into the atmosphere since industrialisation. Such gasses act as a blanket around the Earth, causing temperatures to rise worldwide.
Rising temperatures have already had disastrous consequences for mankind -- including major disruptions to global weather systems -- and problems are expected to become worse in the future.
The main reason for global warming though, is the release of another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, by the burning of fossil fuels. World leaders aim to strike a new global climate deal in Copenhagen in December.
(c) 2009 AFP
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"The main reason for global warming though, is the release of another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, by the burning of fossil fuels. World leaders aim to strike a new global climate deal in Copenhagen in December."
Hmmm in another article here Hansen said that the main reason for the recent cooling was the inactivity of the sun. I guess the warming before had nothing to do with the sun? My head hurts.
2008 coldest year this Millenium
http://www.physor...784.html
""Given our expectation that the next El Niņo will begin this year or in 2010, it still seems likely that a new global surface air temperature record will be set within the next one to two years, despite the moderate cooling effect of reduced solar irradiance," said James Hansen, director of GISS. The Sun is just passing through solar minimum, the low point in its 10- to 12-year cycle of electromagnetic activity, when it transmits its lowest amount of radiant energy toward Earth."
So, does the sun cause global warming or not? And during solar minimums does it override CO2 or does it override itself?
"The main reason for global warming though, is the release of another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, by the burning of fossil fuels. World leaders aim to strike a new global climate deal in Copenhagen in December."
Hmmm in another article here Hansen said that the main reason for the recent cooling was the inactivity of the sun. I guess the warming before had nothing to do with the sun? My head hurts.
2008 coldest year this Millenium
http://www.physor...784.html
""Given our expectation that the next El Niņo will begin this year or in 2010, it still seems likely that a new global surface air temperature record will be set within the next one to two years, despite the moderate cooling effect of reduced solar irradiance," said James Hansen, director of GISS. The Sun is just passing through solar minimum, the low point in its 10- to 12-year cycle of electromagnetic activity, when it transmits its lowest amount of radiant energy toward Earth."
So, does the sun cause global warming or not? And during solar minimums does it override CO2 or does it override itself?
"freshwater snails and other underwater creatures release nitrous oxide -- laughing gas -- when nitrate is present in water."
Ok, now I have some hilarious pictures running through my head....
I love going to the beach, and fishing at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad, CA. NO it isn't because I'm getting high from nitrous-oxide mussel farts!
Ironically the lagoon has a mussel farm...also "agua hedionda" means stink water in Spanish...back before CA was a state, the lagoon wasn't managed, kelp just washed in, piled up and rotted heh!