Pirate's Cove

I have said for a long time that the most dangerous greenhouse gas is methane, and the biggest output of greenhouse gasses by man is methane from agriculture and landfills. Over the past few weeks, I have been seeing more and more stories about that very un-sexy, and laughter inducing, gas, as it relates to farming. Now it has made the New York Times, which does not bode well if you like to eat at a decent price

The cows and pigs dotting these flat green plains in the southern Netherlands create a bucolic landscape. But looked at through the lens of greenhouse gas accounting, they are living smokestacks, spewing methane emissions into the air.

That is why a group of farmers-turned-environmentalists here at a smelly but impeccably clean research farm have a new take on making a silk purse from a sow’s ear: They cook manure from their 3,000 pigs to capture the methane trapped within it, and then use the gas to make electricity for the local power grid.

Good for them. They are doing all this in a way that does not raise the cost to consumers. But, uh oh, here come those who want to control your lives and the world economy

“It’s an area that’s been largely overlooked,” said Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He says people should eat less meat to control their carbon footprints. “We haven’t come to grips with agricultural emissions.”

The trillions of farm animals around the world generate 18 percent of the emissions that are raising global temperatures, according to United Nations estimates, more even than from cars, buses and airplanes.

But unlike other industries, like cement making and power, which are facing enormous political and regulatory pressure to get greener, large-scale farming is just beginning to come under scrutiny as policy makers, farmers and scientists cast about for solutions.

Scrutiny=$$$$$$. Money out of your pocket. I wonder if the folks attending the UN IPCC conference in Poland have cut down on their meat ingestion? Doubtful.

So, a challenge for all those who believe Man is at fault for global warming: cut down on your meat consumption. You really do nothing else to back up your convictions, other then “increase awareness,” so, why not walk the talk?