Feed Cows Beans

As you know, the average temperature of the Earth has been rising during the last century, and most of the blame has been put on CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions. Known as a "greenhouse gas" it tends to block infrared energy, so that at night the Earth radiates a little less heat into Space than when there was lesser amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere.

However, less widely known is that CO2 is not the only, or even the best, greenhouse gas. It happens that plain ordinary water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, but a little less effective than CO2. Another gas, though, methane, is among the best of greenhouse gases. Scientists say that back in the early days of the Planet Earth, before green plants began polluting the atmosphere with oxygen, a major percentage of air was methane, and this helped Life a great deal, because in those days the Sun shone less brightly than today, by 20% or even more.

When oxygen began getting generated, however, it reacted with the methane and today only a tiny fraction of the atmosphere is that gas. The Earth also plunged into an Ice Age so severe that the glaciers almost reached the Equator. THAT'S how effective methane was, as a greenhouse gas!

Anyway, these days there are always crazy people out there doing stuff for their own benefit and the detriment of others. For example, it is known that if the icecaps melt, the ocean level will rise something like 60 meters (200 ft), and millions of people will have to relocate to higher ground. This obviously is an opportunity for anyone investing in land at 60 meters of altitude. You can EXPECT them to WANT global warming, so they can sell those properties at exorbitant (beach front) prices! They may even decide they want to help the process along! One way to do that, of course, is to keep right on burning fossil fuels as fast as possible. So what if the oil is all used up! Just switch to coal, and keep pumping CO2 into the air!

Or, they might decide to get into the methane-production business. Natural gas is methane, of course, so the more leaks in the system, the better! (Well, they still want to SELL enough methane to keep making money from it, and to keep the gas flowing, for more leakage and money, of course.)

Even so, though, it happens that most of the methane in the Earth's atmosphere does not come from leaky natural gas systems. It is produced biologically by bacteria in swamps, for example. But it happens that MOST of the methane comes from a rather prosaic source: the flatulence of cattle. Which finally brings me to this Idea. :)

You want to increase Globa Warming by increasing the amount of methane in the atmosphere? Then Feed Cows Beans!