Natural Living Tips

Every so often I hear about another set of scientists that study the methane and global warming impact that cows make.

It is a serous subject, but then again it makes you wonder.

Passing wind, or as most people would say, burping and farting, release enormous amounts of gas, methane to be precise.

One of the qualities of methane is that it retains more heat than CO2, and there lies the impact on global warming.

Argentina has over 50 million head of cattle in the Pampas, New Zealand has great amount of sheep and I would guess just about every country in the world is a contributor to this form of global warming.

Scientists have created interesting methods of collecting this gas to be able to study it. I suppose it is the amount and frequency of release. They are even working on a vaccine as well as alternative diets.

There are bound to be effects on farming and meat production and all due to the passing wind.

As I mentioned this to my youngest (at ten he has great insight in many subjects), he immediately suggested that cows shouldn’t eat beans.

From the mouths of babes.

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No, I am not referring to the bible, but a story in the newspaper warning that English honey will run out by Christmas.

In the US, 35 states have also been hit by dwindling bees. For some time bees have been in decline due to what has been called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCP). The suspect is a parasitic mite.

Israel (the land of milk and honey) has also been hard hit - with a 60% decline in honey production.

But the culprit is not only CCP, but a mix of phenomena. Viruses, pesticides, shortage of nectar caused by changes in farming practices and even stress.

And guess what else. Rain fall. Too much at the wrong time is affecting bees pollination.

Are we seeing more results of global warming?

Simple little things these insects. They cause phobias and their sting isn’t very nice. They have millions of other cousins, and though some are beautiful to look at, for most people they are usually ignored.

But, and this is a huge but (not butt!), they have an enormous impact on the environment. Not only honey, but pollination and they are perhaps the most important link in the food chain, as well as in cleaning up.

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I just read that the air temperature in the Arctic is at a record high.

According to the NOAA (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) autumn air temperatures in the region are at a record 9ºF above average.

Ice melting during the summer has been high and fits into a pattern that has been spotted since the sixties.

The report goes on to say that it is probable there will be even less ice next year. There is bound to be an impact on land and marine animals.

There are many guesstimates and projections on future effects but nobody really knows.

As I read this two things came to mind:

1. Climate changes, either global warming or cooling, have happened many times before. With countless effects, both good and bad from our point of view. They are cyclical in nature. But we weren’t around at the time, at least in the numbers we are today. (I say at least because early man was around in the last ice age).
2. Dinosaurs became extinct in a very short period of time and the theory is that some natural catastrophe created a major climate change.

Well, it looks as if we are in a hurry to provoke climate change - the worse part is that our hurry is fed through irresponsibility, selfishness and ignorance more than anything else.

From a geological and extremely long term point of view, things will regain their balance, though we really have no idea how out of balance things will get. We haven’t a clue what sort of world the next generations will inhabit.

The good news is that there is much more awareness of the environment than at any other time before, and this gives me hope we can reverse the damage we have caused, (although there is a risk that we may have reached the point of no return where natural forces start taking over under their own steam).

Can we learn from what happened to the dinosaurs?

At the end of the day that is a question that can only be answered by each individual.

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Navy sonar could be confusing whales and dolphins, causing them to flee and become stranded.

It appears that the frequency used by navy sonar, which is lower than that of merchant ships, is similar to the attack frequency used by killer whales.

A research vessel near the Bahamas, with a team of scientist from the Sea Mammal Research Unit has been studying the effects of sounds on deep diving whales. One of the theories is that the similarity in sonar frequency between the killer whale attack sonar and that of navy ships is confusing these sea mammals and causing a strong response, which for some ends in being stranded on beaches.

In 2007 the same research team played a recording of sounds made by killer whales near a Blainville’s whale who surfaced and left the area. They repeated the experiment but with sonar sound from a navy ship, with the similar results.

Back in the sixties when the first reporting of stranded dolphins began to appear, the navy was suspected.

The results of these reports will probably be rejected in certain quarters and accepted at others. Probably more experiments and research will take place.

But suppose navy sonar is responsible for these strandings, and who knows what other effects underwater noise pollution is having, and suppose it is accepted as fact. And suppose also that there is a will to do something about it.

And after supposing all these things, what a come down to know that the costs involved, to design, find and then change all the navy’s sonar devices, will make it highly unlightly.

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