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Study: US spewing 50% more methane than EPA says

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  • Study: US spewing 50% more methane than EPA says

    How long until the leftist EPA revisits the tax penalties for farting animals?

    I like how farm animals farting in blue states isn't an issue.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is spewing 50 percent more methane — a potent heat-trapping gas — than the federal government estimates, a new comprehensive scientific study says. Much of it is coming from just three states: Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

    That means methane may be a bigger global warming issue than thought, scientists say. Methane is 21 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the most abundant global warming gas, although it doesn't stay in the air as long.

    Much of that extra methane, also called natural gas, seems to be coming from livestock, including manure, belches, and flatulence, as well as leaks from refining and drilling for oil and gas, the study says. It was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

    The study estimates that in 2008, the U.S. poured 49 million tons of methane into the air. That means U.S. methane emissions trapped about as much heat as all the carbon dioxide pollution coming from cars, trucks, and planes in the country in six months.

    That's more than the 32 million tons estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration or the nearly 29 million tons reckoned by the European Commission.

    "Something is very much off in the inventories," said study co-author Anna Michalak, an Earth scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, Calif. "The total U.S. impact on the world's energy budget is different than we thought, and it's worse."

    EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said her agency hasn't had time to go through the study yet, but hopes it will help "refine our estimates going forward."

    While the world has a good handle on how much carbon dioxide is pumped into the air, scientists have been more baffled by methane emissions. They have had to use computer models to estimate how much methane is going into that air.

    This study, however, was based on nearly 13,000 measurements from airplane flights and tall towers, the most used in any such research.

    The information was collected in 2008. Scientists have yet to analyze their data from 2012, and that will capture more of any impact of the natural gas boom from hydraulic fracturing, Michalik said. Studies recently have shown conflicting results about how much methane escapes during fracking and other forms of fossil fuel drilling.

    Outside experts praised the study. Robert Howarth at Cornell University called "it very compelling and quite important. This is the most comprehensive study yet."

    Michalak said because of the way they measured methane — just looking for it in the air as opposed to tracking it from a source — it is hard to say what is putting more methane into the air. But she said by looking at concentrations — especially within Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — the scientists have a good idea: Cows, oil and gas.

    Nearly one-quarter of the U.S. methane emissions came from those three states. Texas is by far and away the No. 1 state for refineries that turn oil into gasoline. Texas and Oklahoma have been big oil and gas drilling states and Kansas is a big cow state.

    Cows seem to be spewing twice the methane that scientists previously thought, Michalak said.

    While burps and flatulence are part of the methane emission from cattle, University of California Santa Barbara professor Ira Leifer said a bigger factor is manure.

    "If you shovel it into an artificial lagoon you are creating the perfect production for methane, but it cuts down on the smell and your neighbors complain less," he said.
    Stevo
    Originally posted by SSMAN
    ...Welcome to the land of "Fuck it". No body cares, and if they do, no body cares.

  • #2
    Eat more beef?

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    • #3
      If it were up to these liberal greenies they would regulate us back to the stone age, then they would regulate the fires we would be left with making for heat.

      Comment


      • #4
        Too much methane? Sounds like they're just... "full of shit."...


        YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....
        Originally posted by PGreenCobra
        I can't get over the fact that you get to go live the rest of your life, knowing that someone made a Halloween costume out of you. LMAO!!
        Originally posted by Trip McNeely
        Originally posted by dsrtuckteezy
        dont downshift!!
        Go do a whooly in front of a Peterbilt.

        Comment


        • #5
          Are they measuring with those silly portable boxes at the on ramps? I always floor it by those.

          Comment


          • #6
            And yet the global warming has been flat for 15 years.
            I wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool

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            • #7
              Originally posted by don svo View Post
              ( •_•)too much methane?
              ( •_•)>⌐■-■ sounds like they're just...
              (⌐■_■) "full of shit."...


              Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

              fixed.
              .

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              • #8
                Notice they're using 2008's numbers. The beef and dairy herds are way way smaller now. The last few years of drought have seen ranchers in those states cutting into, and even eliminating, their breeding herds.
                ZOMBIE REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT 2016!!! heh

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                • #9
                  Huge dairy cow population in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana...
                  "Self-government won't work without self-discipline." - Paul Harvey

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by GhostTX View Post
                    Huge dairy cow population in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana...
                    must be the beaner population?
                    "If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." - Henry Ford

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                    • #11
                      The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claims that increased methane levels are coming from a natural source - wetlands.

                      They better get the website updated before Obeyme sees it.

                      Where’s all this methane coming from?

                      Mining and the processing of fossil fuels are the principal sources of methane. Livestock emit large quantities of the gas as they digest grain and grasses. Landfills also give off lots of methane as garbage decays.

                      NOAA scientists have been measuring the levels of these gases for many decades. The changes in the levels are summarized yearly in the NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index.

                      Their measurements have tracked startling increases in greenhouse gases over time, as well as increases in average surface temperature. As the atmosphere warms, NOAA scientists expect that alterations in climate will bring more intense storms, heat waves, droughts, flooding and rising sea levels.

                      Methane levels, however, have not shown a consistent upward trend. From the late 1970s through the late 1990s, methane levels in the atmosphere rose but then flattened until they began increasing again in 2007. Methane emissions from wetlands found mainly in the tropics, with some in the Arctic, are the likely reason for the increase.

                      Error 404 We're sorry, these coordinates don't compute. Enter Search Terms ? Or visit these popular links: News & features Tools & resources About our agency
                      When the government pays, the government controls.

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                      • #12
                        So, the Earth is responsible for global warming? Fuck it. Ban the Earth. And someone put a filter on those damned volcanoes
                        I wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          People will buy anything pooped out by the media.
                          Originally posted by Buzzo
                          Some dudes jump out of airplanes, I fuck hookers without condoms.

                          sigpic

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