Let’s talk about… methane

Seriously, what’s all the fuzz about carbon dioxide (CO2)? Sure, it is a greenhouse gas causing global warming, and true, mainly humans are to be blamed for its massive emission and the resulting temperature rise, and consequently, especially humans should be able to do something about it. But this narrow-minded focus on nothing but carbon dioxide is dangerous. It draws all our attention away from another, yet far more aggressive greenhouse gas also mentioned in the Kyoto protocols, although no-one actually cares about it: methane (CH4). On the short run, it is over 60 times as effective when it comes to causing global warming. Over centuries(!), its effectiveness decreases to about 7 times that of CO2, but only because chemical reactions in the atmosphere transform CH4 into, among others, CO2! (btw, the Wikipedia page on greenhouse gasses provides a wealth of information on this topic)
How does CH4 get into the atmosphere? By several semi-anthropogenic ways, as I call them – natural ways enhanced by humans. For instance, permafrost soils (frozen mud, basically) in the Siberian tundra contained huge quantities of CH4. Contained, in the past tense, as it appears now that, together with the melting ice in the permafrost due to mild global warming until now, the CH4 is released into the atmosphere (visible as bubbles in the swamp). This could trigger a massive warming event far beyond any human control, especially far beyond half-hearted Kyoto efforts. Just like a nuclear explosion is far beyond human control after a potentially controllable melt-down reached a certain threshold. This is probably also the process explaining rapid warming following the latest ice ages, although the initial warming was of course purely natural back then. Also, anaerobic fermentation in flooded rice fields accounts for a major proportion of methane in the atmosphere. Yet a perfectly natural process, the increased demand for rice by an increasing world population might be disastrous when it comes to global warming – especially when the rice is subsequently transported overseas by airplane.

Anyway, the other semi-anthropogenic way is the one I wanted to raise awareness about: decomposing manure and (excusez le mot) livestock farts and burps (some bacteria produce methane during digestion, and this is then released through relevant body openings). Ever wondered why you somehow (maybe subconsciously) associate Flanders’ Fields with a nasty odor? Ever wondered why the air always seems so pure when you’re abroad on a holiday, no matter where? I found the answer while searching the Global Ecosystems Database for environmental background GIS data in our “phylogenetic niche modeling” project: a map depicting global methane emission through animals. Guess what, it turns out that no-one is worse off than we are (except for Bangladesh, although if you live in Bangladesh, you probably have a lot more to worry about than methane). I sincerely wonder if Verhofstadt takes livestock methane emission into account when calculating marketable emission rights… or how Leterme would react if Flemish farmers would not only be obliged to control nitrogen release, but also methane emission…