Wednesday, January 11, 2006
TREES! IT WAS TREES ALL ALONG
The Guardian reports:
They have long been thought of as the antidote to harmful greenhouse gases, sufferers of, rather than contributors to, the effects of global warming. But in a startling discovery, scientists have realised that plants are part of the problem.
According to a study published today, living plants may emit almost a third of the methane entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The result has come as a shock to climate scientists.
Fools! They should have listened to Ronald Reagan. More from the SMH on this delightful development:
What if trees in addition to taking in Co2 also emit a greenhouse gas of their own?
That scenario is sketched in a new study by European scientists, which, if confirmed, would be one of the biggest upheavals in climate science for years.
It would also inflict a serious blow to Kyoto, one of whose key pillars is the faith in “sinks,” as forests are called in the treaty’s jargon.
Why, forests turn out to be no better than filthy car factories! Except with more owls. Atmospheric scientist David Lowe is depressed:
“We now have the spectre that new forests might increase greenhouse warming through methane emissions rather than decrease it by being sinks for Co2,” Lowe said ruefully.
This news is yet to reach The Age’s online insanity forum, currently fuming over Australia’s rejection of Kyoto, among other things:
We should also educate and stop third world countries from breeding. These people have no quality of life , they die young and the more people on this planet the more pollution.
Posted by: Fiona Q at January 11, 2006 12:29 PMA sensible solution would be to ban all cars over (say) five years old. That way there would be less pollution and a lot less cars. An added benefit would be less poor people on the roads causing traffic jams and congestion.
Posted by: Roger Z at January 11, 2006 03:57 PMI sit in an office with 6.8kw watts of flourescent light during the day when the sun is shining giving out free light? Why isn’t turning on a light during the day an illigal act.
Why do we have street lights. It enables gangs and thieves to move about without alerting people they are there because they would need a light from a torch …
The Governments job is to provide stability. Stability is created by changing nothing. Therefore all current fixes to the problems involve bandaid measures to ensure the current systems stay in place. This why we don’t ride around in hover cars and enjoy free energy, free communications and have robots do the hard work for us.
Posted by: barry steer at January 11, 2006 02:34 PM
In the midst of this madness, Ian’s fine joke blends almost seamlessly:
Japan has had its coldest winter for 80 years. This is because Kyoto is in the centre of Japan and the protocol’s effects are felt strongest there.
Posted by: Ian at January 11, 2006 01:37 PM
(Via James Morrow)