Umpty-tiddly-umpty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Not that it will result in anything as pretty as the Sistine Chapel, alas...
An interesting convergence of the most recent two themes I've been going on about today in El Pais de Murdoch: it seems true believers can now buy indulgences to salve their consciences and aid the suffering souls in environmental purgatory.
It is quite disturbing in a way. Our personal methane emissions have a greater warming impact than our breathing out CO2, but instead of finding solutions to prevent flatulence we pay to offset it in a way which doesn't guarantee a smaller carbon footprint (buying fluoro light bulbs doesn't mean we will use less electricity)
The other point is that the passing of gasses (farting) has variable methane content. If you gulp air when you eat, or drink lots of fizzy drinks you will fart more, but the methane content will be low...most of it will be air or CO2 that has passed through your system. The methane level depends both on your diet and your floral ecology in your gut. Different people have different emmisions, and counting volume is not that accurate. (at least thats off the top of my head)
Surely somebody has studied what foods can prevent CH4 bodily emmissions. or at least an injection or something. It would be worth it in some cases even withou Global warming considerations.
I've seen similar comparisons between carbon credits and indulgences in print several times over the next month, but don't recall seeing any *before* I made this post. I therefore lay claim to being at the cutting edge of the Zeitgeist...
4 comments:
It is quite disturbing in a way. Our personal methane emissions have a greater warming impact than our breathing out CO2, but instead of finding solutions to prevent flatulence we pay to offset it in a way which doesn't guarantee a smaller carbon footprint (buying fluoro light bulbs doesn't mean we will use less electricity)
The other point is that the passing of gasses (farting) has variable methane content. If you gulp air when you eat, or drink lots of fizzy drinks you will fart more, but the methane content will be low...most of it will be air or CO2 that has passed through your system. The methane level depends both on your diet and your floral ecology in your gut. Different people have different emmisions, and counting volume is not that accurate. (at least thats off the top of my head)
Surely somebody has studied what foods can prevent CH4 bodily emmissions. or at least an injection or something. It would be worth it in some cases even withou Global warming considerations.
I've seen similar comparisons between carbon credits and indulgences in print several times over the next month, but don't recall seeing any *before* I made this post. I therefore lay claim to being at the cutting edge of the Zeitgeist...
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