Article

2006-01-11 -Short Attention Span Theater-

...Plants!

German scientists have discovered a new source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change. The culprits are plants.

Run for your lives!

They produce about 10 to 30 percent of the annual methane found in the atmosphere, according to researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.

Feed me, Seymour.

The scientists measured the amount of methane released by plants in controlled experiments. They found it increases with rising temperatures and exposure to sunlight. "Significant methane emissions from both intact plants and detached leaves were observed ... in the laboratory and in the field," Dr Frank Keppler and his team said in a report in the journal Nature.

"We also observed large piles of downy feathers, fur and bones, which we have determined to belong to baby bunnies and week-old ducklings. They never had a chance."

Methane, which is produced by city rubbish dumps, coal mining, flatulent animals, rice cultivation and peat bogs, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in terms of its ability to trap heat. Concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere have almost tripled in the last 150 years. About 600 million tonnes worldwide are produced annually. The scientists said their finding is important for understanding the link between global warming and a rise in greenhouse gases. It could also have implications for the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for developed countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Keppler and his colleagues discovered that living plants emit 10 to 100 times more methane than dead plants. Scientists had previously thought that plants could only emit methane in the absence of oxygen.

David Lowe, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said the findings are startling and controversial. "Keppler and colleagues' finding helps to account for observations from space of incredibly large plumes of methane above tropical forests," he said in a commentary on the research. But the study also poses questions, such as how such a potentially large source of methane could have been overlooked and how plants produced it. "There will be a lively scramble among researchers for the answers to these and other questions," Lowe added.

Such as how this new finding can be tied to the Bushitler regime and if emergency measures are needed to tighten controls of household philodendrons.

Posted by Seafarious 2006-01-11 15:43|| || Front Page|| [11147 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 We need to cut down and burn the rainforests NOW! Before its too late!

Posted by BrerRabbit 2006-01-11 17:05|| 2006-01-11 17:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Scientists had previously thought that plants could only emit methane in the absence of oxygen.

Oooops! Kinda like that "sunshine causes cancer - except you need it" or the "cholesterol is bad for you, waitaminnit, you need it anyway" thingy. Look, understand that you don't have the grand unifying theory of how all things work, and stop trying to manipulate the system! It's worked for beelyuns and beelyuns of years, we don't have to be The Loving Shepherds of Frickin Gaia!

Posted by BH 2006-01-11 17:09|| 2006-01-11 17:09|| Front Page Top

#3 That means that all the current climate models are pure flatulence.

Posted by twobyfour 2006-01-11 17:51|| 2006-01-11 17:51|| Front Page Top

#4 This isn't new. In the latter part of of the 1990s scientists discovered that the Blue Ridge Mountains appear blue because of smog, the chemical constituents are emitted by the trees growing there. In 1998 or -9 I wrote to lead professor on the research (I'm afraid I don't remember his name) to find out which species were most culpable so that we wouldn't plant those at the trailing daughters' school nature preserve, but he never answered. As I recall, however, cottonwoods are wonderful at drawing out pollutants from the groundwater and sequestering the chemicals in their trunks, sunflowers are especially good at removing heavy metals from the soil, and the native Blue Flag iris (iris [virginicus] shrevei) is particularly good at pulling pollutants out of running water.

In case anyone wants to know. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2006-01-11 19:06|| 2006-01-11 19:06|| Front Page Top

#5 Sniff, Sniff - and to think it only took twenty to thirty years to affirm my old science thesis, and by the Germans no less. Time to celebrate wid a Beer, or 24; and maybe a nice Philly Cheeseteak SUb, or 3.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2006-01-11 20:20|| 2006-01-11 20:20|| Front Page Top

#6 Sniff, Sniff - and to think it only took twenty to thirty years to affirm my old science thesis, and by the Germans no less. Time to celebrate wid a Beer, or 24; and maybe a nice Philly Cheeseteak SUb, or 3.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2006-01-11 20:21|| 2006-01-11 20:21|| Front Page Top

#7 The culprits are plants.

Plant farts - silent, but deadly.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2006-01-11 22:29|| 2006-01-11 22:29|| Front Page Top

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