Sorry

I've been preoccupied with issues such as a broken car and yard work. (It's finally stopped raining!!! Now comes the hard part.) Plus I am getting a bit tired of blogging. It seems there is nothing new to blog about. Same old idiocy, sometime wrapped in new paper, but still same old, same old. Anyway, this is what's caught my eye over the last two or three days: First from the settled science department, is this bit of desperation, or is it classic climbdown or just plane whackiness. I think the message is greenhouse gases=global warming=extinction.


Dinosaur gas 'may have warmed the Earth': UK study

"Giant dinosaurs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago may have warmed the planet with the gas they produced from eating leafy plants, British scientists said on Monday. Much like modern cows that emit a significant amount of methane in their digestive process, the 20,000 kilogram (44,000 pound) sauropods contributed the same way, and likely more, to the warming climate, said the study in the US journal Current Biology. The climate during the Mesozoic Era, which spanned 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago, was believed to be hotter than it is today."

There's more here: Dinosaurs farted their way to extinction

..and here: Inherit the wind: dinosaurs blamed for changing climate

"''Our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources - both natural and man-made - put together.''"

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"Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, with a stronger ability to trap heat."

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"Global methane emissions from the animals would have amounted to about 472 million tonnes a year, the scientists calculated. The figure is comparable to total natural and man-made methane emissions today. About 150 years ago, methane emissions were about 181 million tonnes a year. The scientists wrote, ''The Mesozoic trend to sauropod gigantism led to the evolution of immense microbial vats unequalled in modern land animals. Methane was probably important in Mesozoic greenhouse warming. Our simple proof-of-concept model suggests greenhouse warming by sauropod megaherbivores could have been significant in sustaining warm climates.''"