A mighty wind
In this article it talks a lot about how
other animals and creatures pollute the air as well as humans. Humans are constantly being blamed
for the poor air quality, and although we pollute the most there are other
factors as well. It starts with stating that there was pollution way before
humans even existed. The go back to the dinosaur time and explain that in the
dinosaur age herbivores gave of methane, which polluted the
air. Nowadays we have other animals which give off harmful pollutants
as their food digests one example is a cow. “Methane emissions from cattle are
the issue today, accounting for 2 percent of all greenhouse gases.” This
quote talks about how the indigestion of animals causes a measurable amount of
harmful air pollutants.
This was a unique
article. I took a new view on natural air pollution. It recognized that humans
are the top polluters but also put some blame on all animals. I liked that they
tied in the idea of pollution from the dinosaurs to show that pollution has
been around forever. Dinosaurs are now extinct, obviously, but it makes one
think about if that had anything to do with pollution. Scientist had said that
methane was the harmful substance in this equation. I thought this article was
different and took a whole new look on one of the components of pollution.
This is a methane molecule it is polluting the air.
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This scientist is exploring the idea of methane pollution from
the time of the dinosaurs.
Questions:
1. What is one way to reduce the air pollution from
animals?
2. What is methane? What are some negative effects it
has on the environment.
3. Are there any positive uses of methane?
4. Where did Methane originate from (even before
dinosaurs)?
This is a very interesting article. I like how this shows the other contributors to air pollution. Usually it is just humans blamed but this showed other sources. It is also interesting to hear that even dinosaurs gave f methane.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: Methane can be used to create energy. Methane, which can come from manure is used to power a small-scale anaerobic digester to create biogas which can be converted into electricity.
Source: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/2358/massachusetts-dairy-farmers-form-agreen-energy/
This was a very interesting article to read about because we always hear about how humans are the main cause of pollution, but never about animals causing any. We learned a little in class about how animals can be affected by the hormones they are fed while they are raised to be killed for their meat. This would cause a form of air pollution from the animal waste. One way to fix this would be to buy organic meat only. Although there are other ways that animals cause air pollution, maybe it can be controlled.
ReplyDeleteIn response to question 2, methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is widely found in nature and is produced by the decomposition of organic materials, such as wood or dead animals. One negative effect of methane is that it absorbs infrared radiation 20 times better than CO2, and it increases the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere.
I think this article is very interesting because it highlights a cause of pollution that most people do not usually think of. I never really knew that animals could cause such a problem for the environment. It was also very interesting how indigestion in cows causes so much methane to be released. Maybe farmers could stop this problem by feeding the cows more small meals as opposed to large meals to control how fast the cows consume their food.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3: Although methane is usually thought of as a harmful gas, it does have several beneficial uses. Methane is a gas that can be converted into oil to power cars, buses and trucks. Also, researchers are working on a way to use the gas to turn a turbine to produce electricity. Lastly, it can be converted into gas and sold for residential and industrial heating.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20090410145113tsop.nb/topstory.html