This is just priceless. The politicization of science grows increasingly humorous. Some scientists are now claiming that dinosaurs passing wind may have caused climate change.
Oy! And Ewwww!
The UK Telegraph reports:
Huge plant-eating dinosaurs may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth’s climate, research suggests.
Dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources.
Like huge cows, the mighty sauropods would have generated enormous quantities of methane.
Sauropods, recognisable by their long necks and tails, were widespread around 150 million years ago.
They included some of the largest animals to walk the Earth, such as Diplodocus, which measured 150 feet and weighed up to 45 tonnes.
Scientists believe that, just as in cows, methane-producing bacteria aided the digestion of sauropods by fermenting their plant food.
”A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,” said study leader Dr Dave Wilkinson, from Liverpool John Moores University.
Too bad there wasn’t an AlGoreasaurus to warn them to eat better.
May 7, 2012 at 2:49 pm
AlGoreasaurus! Good one!
May 7, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Gives a whole new meaning to Green House gases.
May 7, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Oh Lord! That means when Godzilla stomps Japan again, the Japanese will get it from both ends!
May 7, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Pardon my ignorance, but cui bono? If this is part of polarizing science as you put it, whose narrative benefits from farting dinosaurs? Why? It seems like it could go either way.
May 7, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Fossil fuel – the prequel.
May 7, 2012 at 4:00 pm
It was just a few years ago that methane from cows was a consideration.
May 7, 2012 at 5:27 pm
AlGoreasaurus: priceless.maxCohen said…
It was just a few years ago that methane from cows was a consideration. The endangered farmers called it the cow fart tax and the government backed off. Isn't methane also called swamp gas and sewer gas, both produce it and can it be harnessed to heat homes, safely? Swamps and sewers produce far more methane than anything man can do. So why is the government beating up on taxpayers?
May 7, 2012 at 5:29 pm
because swamps cannot be taxed