Reducing cow burping 'is key to tackling climate change'

Fun fieldwork for a team of Argentinan scientists who are measuring the levels of methane in cow belches in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Methane, produced by cows, is a more dangerous global warming gas than carbon dioxide. One of the world's biggest beef producers, Argentina has some 55 million heads of cattle grazing on the famed Pampas grasslands.
Scientists have strapped plastic tanks to the backs of cows in order to collect their belches and study their methane levels. The scientists say that as much as 30% of Argentina's greenhouse gases could come from cows, and hope this study will find a way to cut down on emissions by changing the diet and lifestyle of the animals. The grass that cows eat is hard to digest and broken down by bacteria in the animal's four stomachs. With no oxygen, the bacteria turn into methane. Most gas comes from the front, not rear, ends of the cows.(phew!!!) The average dairy cow in the UK belches out about 100 to 200 litres of methane each day. Pardon you.

School Geography. What’s it all about.

Thanks to Dan Raven Ellison for this one. Great movie making! Look at the list of jobs geography is useful for. Now tell me if geography is an anachronism. (Look it up Carrick kids!)

Pre-quake changes seen in rocks

Scientists have made an important advance in their efforts to predict earthquakes. A team of US researchers has detected changes in rocks that happened hours before tremors. They used sensors lowered down holes drilled into the quake zone.
Referring to the 12 May Sichuan quake, which claimed thousands of lives, Dr Niu told the BBC: "What happened in China was that a lot of children were killed in school in their class; so if we can predict earthquakes even by a few minutes, we can help then to evacuate the classroom."
Read the complete article from the BBC here.

Water or Blue Gold?

Nice article here in today’s Independent on this issue. Some of you have been hearing me for years about how important water is in the world and how the next big war will probably start over this. (Depressing stuff). Read this article and you’ll see what I mean.

Urban traffic control measures

Electronic bollards
Watch this video and see if you think these are a good idea or not.

How important is the Rainforest to the world?

Most people don’t realise just how important the rainforests are for ALL of us. Deforestation releases more CO2 into the atmosphere each year than all of the world's planes, trains and automobiles put together! The truth is that cutting down the rainforests for farming and grazing produces more CO2 than all the UK energy used in our homes. Each hectare of rainforest - roughly the size of two football pitches - an area almost the size of England and Wales is cut down every year releasing billions of tons of CO2 into the air. The destruction results in millions of people being made homeless while causing animals and plants to be extinct. Read the whole Telegraph article here.

Go also to the Rainforest Foundation site here for some interesting photos.

Life in a Slum

Sanitation in Ethiopia's capital city- Addis Ababa leaves a lot to be desired - and it is the poor who are most at risk. The World Health Organization estimates that 64% of people in Ethiopia have to do the toilet outdoors. People need to be educated on how to take good care of the water they fetch to avoid contamination. The UN has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. When will things improve? How? What an we do? Read the BBC article here. Also have a look at previous posts on this including one comment that gives you an additional site to access. All good reading.