New Global Warming Culprit Found as Belching Moose Emit CO2

I’m going to quote a global warming related story in afp.com, about Moose burps that I found particularly interesting.

 

“A grown moose belches out methane gas equivalent to 2,100 kilograms (4,630 pounds) of carbon dioxide a year, contributing to global warming, Norwegian researchers said Wednesday.

 That is more than twice the amount of CO2 emitted on a round-trip flight across the Atlantic Ocean from Oslo to the Chilean capital Santiago, according to Scandinavian Airlines.” 

The story goes on to say that there are hundreds of thousands of moose in Norway alone, and that there combined methane output is significant. The really interesting point that caught my attention was the following, also quoted from the afp.com story:

 

” ‘Moose have very important functions in nature. They are ruminants that eat the grass. If we don’t have ruminants, we have too much grass and that changes the landscape and has consequences for the flora and fauna,’ he said.”

 

The reason that this point has merit in my mind is that Moose are supposed to emit CO2, they are part of nature, and nature can deal with things like moose burps, cow farts and so on. What mankind does with our planes, ships and vehicles is add additional CO2 and pollutants to an atmosphere that may not be equipped to handle the extra emissions.

 

So while it is true that we are finding that nature does have ways of producing greenhouse gases on its own, that does not make it okay for people to emit an unexpected additional dose of harmful emissions. I don’t propose that we should all stop driving or taking planes or anything like that, but I do think that it is time to start looking at new and innovative technologies that help us pollute less.