Just a few days ago, we wrote that laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, has become today’s biggest threat to the ozone layer. So what’s the greatest source of nitrous oxide? Manure, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience.
Nitrous oxide, which also contributes to global warming, is produced naturally and through human activities like agriculture. Fertilizer is a recognized source of the gas, but until now, manure had been largely overlooked. Says researcher Eric Davidson: “[Fertilisers] are extremely important, but that’s only part of the story.” … He says nitrous oxide levels started increasing in the late 19th century “long before we started using nitrogen fertilisers in the 1960’s” [ABC Science]. And as a growing number of people around the globe consume meat, the manure that is an inevitable byproduct of meat production could pump an increasing amount of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere–or we could harness the power-producing potential of the waste.
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Image: flickr / Rennett Stowe
September 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
Another bogus scare coming soon from the environmentalists, eating meat equals ozone depletion. The sun CONSTANTLY produces ozone in our atmosphere.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
What do environmentalists have to gain from scare tactics? If the sun produces ozone then why is the hole widening? Is it because their proposals threaten profit???
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Why do the contrarians rush to respond to ecological posts? I pour concrete for a living, believe me- the sun is growing more fierce every year. Eating meat does not cause global warming if it is done in a sustainable way. But rendering our planet into graze land and feedlots
polutes the water table, allows price fixing by agri-business, and releases a heck of a lot of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide into our growingly destabilized atmosphere. Wake up you sheep!