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Posted on 5/2/2007, 6:26:30 PM by Pokey78
As delegates to a climate conference here debate how to reduce greenhouse gases, one of the problems — and a possible solution — lies in the rice fields that cover much of Thailand, the rest of Asia and beyond.
Methane emissions from flooded rice paddies contribute to warming just as coal-fired power plants, automobile exhausts and other sources do with the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere.
In fact, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting this week in Bangkok concludes that rice production was a main cause of rising methane emissions in the 20th century. It calls for better controls.
“There is no other crop that is emitting such a large amount of greenhouse gases,” said Reiner Wassmann, a climate-change specialist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
“Methane emissions are unique to rice,” he said. “If Asian countries are exploring possibilities to reduce greenhouse gas, they have to look at rice production. I’m not saying it’s the biggest source, but in Asia it’s a source that cannot be neglected.”
It is the bacteria that thrive in flooded paddies that produce methane, by decomposing manure used as fertilizer and other organic matter in the oxygen-free environment. The gas is emitted through the plants or directly into the atmosphere.
A molecule of methane is 21 times more potent than a molecule of carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas. Although carbon dioxide is still the bigger problem, representing 70 percent of the warming potential in the atmosphere, rising levels of methane account for 23 percent, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports.
After years of atmospheric buildup, methane — also emitted naturally from wetlands and from other manmade sources, such as landfills and cattle farming — has leveled off in the past few years.
Some scientists credit changes in rice production, and some also trace it to repairs in oil- and gas-storage plants that can leak methane.
A study in 2005 by U.S. scientists focused on China, which produces a third of the world’s rice and where rice fields have shrunk by 24 million acres in the past 10 years as farmers shifted to other crops and abandoned marginal land.
The study also found that nitrogen-based fertilizer has replaced manure, and many Chinese farmers are using less water on their fields.
Rice’s fault!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I just cut one of those really protracted gaseous emissions. Do you think that I might have done harm to the atmosphere?
Ban rice.
Ban cows.
Ban a**holes who are flatulent and keep coming up with global warming crap.
< sigh > Where to start ...
“A molecule of methane is 21 times more potent than a molecule of carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas. Although carbon dioxide is still the bigger problem, representing 70 percent of the warming potential in the atmosphere, rising levels of methane account for 23 percent, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports.”
Gee, I guess all those water vapor molecules no longer represent ~90%+ of greenhouse gases’ effect and mole volume.
Why can’t these guys just present facts instead of distorting EVERYTHING. Yes, methane is an atmospherically active gas. But SOOOOO much more comes from (instead of rice paddies) natural vegetative, insect, bacterial and geologic sources it ain’t funny.
“In fact, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting this week in Bangkok”
burn the rice paddies and kill the people that eat rice, but by God WE will travel/fly from all over the world for a few days in Bangkok (of course they won’t talk about all the CO2 from the planes and stuff, would they)...
Honestly, is this where science has got us? We are now worried about rice methane, food that has been eaten for upwards of 10,000 years? Is this the stupid s&^t that we need to listen to now? Never mind that these “scientists” flip-flop on pretty much everything (butter is good for you..bad for you...apples are good for you...they are bad for you..et cetera), now we give them an audience for people growing rice.
Translation:
Thai farmers want to be paid not to grow food, an American invention! (waving flag) Stop growing food, earn carbon credits. Even better, collect the credits, grow the food anyway! Who’ll really check, the Kyoto Police?
Agribusiness worked with Gore to insert into Kyoto this farm provision in 1997. The other lobby was the financial rackets, led by Enron, which inserted the carbon trading market scheme.
Mother Nature has been running the planet for a few billion years.
I don’t think she needs a bunch of radical liberals trying to help.
Let them eat cake.
“Let them eat rice cakes.”
Global warming has really moved into the realm of the absurd. Rice is a hazard. Cows are a hazard. What’s next? Fuzzy puppies?
We are exposed to an enormous amount of left wing radical flatulence daily....
Time to stop growing rice.
Force this on the Chinese now.
Guess we’ll just have to starve a few hundred million east Asians so Huskies can still make yellow snow.
Yeah, we can't have poor people eating staple crops, now can we???
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
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