Here We Go Again

[xrayzebra]

Okay, everyone, get ready for it. Beef is going to be next bad guy. The
Vegan's are gonna be the good guys. First smoking, then SuV's, then
trans-fats and now the cows are the problem. But sex is still okay, so long
it is among consensual same sex partners.

Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 10 December 2006

Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.

A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.

The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.

Livestock also produces more than 100 other polluting gases, including more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, one of the main causes of acid rain.

Ranching, the report adds, is "the major driver of deforestation" worldwide, and overgrazing is turning a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert.Cows also soak up vast amounts of water: it takes a staggering 990 litres of water to produce one litre of milk.

Wastes from feedlots and fertilisers used to grow their feed overnourish water, causing weeds to choke all other life. And the pesticides, antibiotics and hormones used to treat them get into drinking water and endanger human health.

The pollution washes down to the sea, killing coral reefs and creating "dead zones" devoid of life. One is up to 21,000sqkm, in the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the waste from US beef production is carried down the Mississippi.

The report concludes that, unless drastic changes are made, the massive damage done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases.


:downspin: :downspin: :downspin: :downspin: :downspin: :downspin: :downspin:

[sandman]

The cow will never be the enemy of the liberals, because it is a sacred symbol of a non-Christian based religion.

[shelshor]

Wasn't Ronald Reagan soundly ridiculed by the Lefties for daring to suggest that cows were a major contributor to the global atmospheric problems of the day?
:spin Seems like the biggie of the day was The Ozone Hole, which was the one between Global Cooling and Global Warming

[MaNuMaNiAc]

:lol Ron White

[Yonivore]

Wasn't Ronald Reagan soundly ridiculed by the Lefties for daring to suggest that cows were a major contributor to the global atmospheric problems of the day?
:spin Seems like the biggie of the day was The Ozone Hole, which was the one between Global Cooling and Global Warming
Don't forget the "killer" trees. Reagan was also way ahead of the Left on the effects of plant decomposition.

[xrayzebra]

Those damn cows. At least Bush didn't do it.



Times Online December 11, 2006

Experts warn North Pole will be 'ice free' by 2040
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter of The Times

Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years, according to a team of leading climatologists.

Ships will be able to sail over the top of the world and tourists will be able visit what was, until climate change, one of planet’s most inaccessible landscapes.

Researchers assessing the impact of carbon emissions on the world’s climate have calculated that late summer in the Arctic will be ice-free by 2040 or earlier - well within a lifetime.

Some ice would still be found on coastlines, notably Greenland and Ellesmere Island, but the rest of the Arctic Ocean, including the pole, would be open water.

The Nasa-funded US team of researchers said the ice retreat is likely to remain fairly constant until 2024 when there will be a sudden speeding up of the process.

In between 30 and 50 years, they concluded, summer sea ice will have vanished from almost the entire Arctic region.

Their finding may, however, already be out of date and something of an over-optimistic forecast, said Professor Chris Rapley, head of the British Antarctic Survey.

He said a recent study by the Global Carbon Project suggests emissions are rising more than twice as fast as in 2000 which is likely to speed up ice-loss even further.

"The study findings may be an under estimate of when the Arctic summer ice might be all gone," he said. "It could well be their assumptions are more optimistic than they might be."

He described the report as "worrying" but said it fitted into recent findings based on satellite observations of the speed at which ice is retreating.

Arctic ice is being hit by the double effects of loss of reflectivity and warmer currents being washed into the ocean.

Scientists have long realised that ice reflects heat and as the quantity reduces so, too, does the amount of heat that can be bounced away from the Earth.

However, the study team from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, US, and two US universities, identified warmer ocean currents as an additional factor to be considered.

Disappearing ice is already causing problems for the Polar Bear and it is likely to be driven to the brink of extinction unless it can find ways of adapting.

Other wildlife, including seals, are also likely to suffer, though not so badly but the removal of sea ice is likely to benefit a range of marine creatures, including cod, which could move in to the open waters.

For people the open waters are likely to lead to fresh opportunities, though the Inuit lifestyle would be damaged.

Tourist could open up to allow visitors Arctic cruises with cocktail parties over the North Pole that previously defied the best efforts of many explorers.

Oil companies would move in to tap resources previously protected by the ice and freight firms could use the ocean as a shortcut.

Winter ice will still remain because temperatures will plunge during the winter when there is no sun to heat up the region but it will melt faster each year because less will form.

The US study team modified one of the climate models used by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to establish what will happen to the ice as carbon emissions rise.

"We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far," said Professor Marika Holland who led the study. "These changes are surprisingly rapid."

"As the ice retreats, the ocean transports more heat to the Arctic and the open water absorbs more sunlight, further accelerating the rate of warming and leading to the loss of more ice. This is a positive feedback loop with dramatic implications for the entire Arctic region."

[xrayzebra]

and i'm pretty sure the dead zone in the gulf of mexico is not caused by cattle..

Want to read this little article:

Ocean census reveals 50 million BC Jurassic shrimp

London, Dec 11 (ANI): Scientists have documented the existence of a deep sea Jurassic shrimp species that lived around 50 million BC.




Researchers found Neoglyphea neocaledonica alive and well on an underwater peak in the Coral Sea off north-east Australia.

The finding, Dr Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist on the Census of Marine Life said, rivalled only the catching of living specimens of coelacanth, a prehistoric fish that was only known from the fossil record until the first one was caught in 1938.

The hot shrimps were photographed near a thermal vent on the seabed three kilometres (1.8 miles) below the surface.

Dr. O'Dor said the temperature of the fluids billowing out of the vent were up to 407C, high enough to melt lead.

"All somehow tolerate an environment of extreme temperature changes within a few centimetres, and high concentrations of heavy metals from the vent fluids," said Dr. O'Dor.

"We knew that some microbes could live at this temperature but these are relatively big animals. At this point, we really don't know how they are able to survive such high temperatures. We would like to find this out," he said.

Dr. O' Dor said this year's annual marine life global survey also revealed the existence of other life forms, ranging from a microbe as big as a fingernail to scores of new species of plankton, crustaceans, fish, a furry crab and a giant lobster.

On an expedition five kilometres below the surface of the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic, Dr. O'Dor and his team found a diverse array of rare zooplankton - microscopic animals near the bottom of the marine food chain.

The team identified more than 500 species of zooplankton, including 12 that are probably new to science.

According to Dr. O'Dor, zooplanktons generally survive on organic matter that falls like snow from above, but the species also show cannibalistic traits.

Another surprising discovery was a single-celled "macro microbe" measuring 1cm across thanks to its plate-like shell composed of mineral grains. The microbe, a new species of protozoan called Xenophyophore, was found in Nazare Canyon off Portugal at a depth of 4.3 km where the pressure is strong enough to crush metal.

Elsewhere, on another survey off New Jersey, the team identified a single shoal of fish consisting of 20 million individuals covering an area as big as Manhattan island - one of the most abundant explosions of marine life ever documented.

On another expedition, the team suspended an underwater camera down a hole drilled through 700 metres of ice floating above a column of seawater that had not seen light for many thousands of years.

To their surprise, the research team found evidence of life even here.

"It was one of the darkest marine habitats imaginable, yet an "astonishing community" of species had made this unlit environment their home. One of the clearest messages to emerge from the latest study is that there are no deserts in the ocean. Everywhere we look, we find evidence of life," Dr. Ron O'Dor said.

A rock lobster, believed to be the largest of its kind was also found off the Madagascar coast. Its main body span more than half a metre.

Near Easter Island in the Pacific, census researchers further discovered a new species of furry crab that was so unusual that it was given the family name - Kiewaidae - after the Polynesia goddess of shellfish, and the second name hirsuta, in honour of the crab's hairy appearance.

"Each census expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean, and with the return of each vessel it is increasingly clear that many more discoveries await marine explorers," The Independent quoted Fred Grassie, chairman of the census's steering committee as saying.

The 20th expedition, led by the German research ship Polarstern, is currently under way off Antarctica. In total, the census has built up an online library of more than 10 million distribution records covering more than 78,000 species. (ANI)

[xrayzebra]

^^Oh, then life is no life and not healthy. Hmmmmm, I thought you guys called
it a dead zone. Like no life at all. Maybe they should be more specific like
not a healthy life. You know like McDonalds hamburgers.

[PixelPusher]

The cow will never be the enemy of the liberals, because it is a sacred symbol of a non-Christian based religion.
"liberals are idol worshiping pagans"...how quaint.

Cows are indeed sacred...to the cattle industry.