But I’m back
It’s about two months since my last post, which I think is the longest hiatus since postings began in January 2005. What happened?
Nothing specific, but there was some burnout going on, I guess, and I needed a break. But there was just so much happening with all my contacts, there has been all year. I would read significant stories, start to write about them and within a day or two there’d be another one, just as gripping, just as important.
They’re sitting here as drafts; I hope to finish the still relevant stories and get them out to you.
There was paid work that interrupted fairly constantly, not to mention family, friends and colleagues wanting proofreading done. Which I’m very happy to do for them, don’t get me wrong.
A good number of you have stuck around to keep an eye on the Climate Conversation Group, because I see the numbers of visits, so thank you for that.
I have not been idle, but I’m ready for a resumption of blog activity.
Contributions, alerts and special notices always welcome.
Best wishes to all. I hope you’re well.
Richard.
Views: 115
Hello Richard .
This is a letter that I wrote to the editor of the Waikato Times that they will not publish .
I have had no correspondence with the editor and I have resubmitted it again.
Dear Sir,
I have grave concerns about the the governments intention to tax and try and restrict methane emissions from farmed livestock.
Methane emissions from farmed livestock are in an entirely different category than all other green house gas emissions and should never have been included in any countries emission profile .
All other emissions of CO2 and methane are from oil ,gas ,coal and limestone which are extracted from below the earths surface where they have been locked up for millions of years.
Livestock methane emissions are entirely different as animals cycle methane and CO2 and over a ten year span they do not add any green house gasses to the atmosphere .
In effect after ten years the same molecules are counted twice.
Methane from livestock is a non problem as all forage that farmed animals consume has absorbed CO2
and animals with enteric digestive systems have methane microbes in their rumens that digest the cellulose and rapidly multiply.
During this process a small amount of methane is burped to the atmosphere and the microbes then travel through the other stomachs where they are digested as food .
The methane that is emitted to the atmosphere stays in the atmosphere for 8 to 12 years and is broken down into CO2 and water and the cycle continues .
No more green house gases are generated by this process and there is strong evidence that farmed pastures are very good carbon sinks .
Methane levels have been slowly rising in the atmosphere but this cannot be blamed on farmed livestock .
Blame the real problem which is methane released from coal mining operations,oil and gas field emissions and all fossil fuel combustion .
Live stock methane emissions will never contribute to rising methane levels .
The rational for including them should never have been included in any climate accord or government restrictions in New Zealand or through out the world .
Graham Anderson
Notes
I met John Maunder who attended the first two climate conferences on behalf of New Zealand in Villach and Rio de Janeiro .
He told me that methane from livestock was never mentioned at the first two climate conferences and it was introduced at the Kyoto conference
I am quite certain that the delegation from New Zealand to the Kyoto conference were certain that New Zealand was a very low emitting country and until livestock methane was brought into the proceedings and nearly half of our emissions were then calculated to come from livestock .
I am quite certain after reading United Nations documents such as ” Live stocks long shadow “and similar propaganda styled documents emanating from the UN that there is a extreme bias against farmed livestock and the methane threat was thought up to cripple livestock farming.
I welcome all criticism of this letter as I have put forward a paper to the zero carbon bill and I hope to personalty put this before the panel of experts in an expanded format .
Graham Anderson.
Some more facts to add to the above post.
It has been calculated that 26 percent of methane emissions are from what are called fugitive emissions from oil and gas fields that escape during production and pipelines.
That is over a quarter of all methane emissions from all sources and the methane levels plateaued from around 1998 to 2008 which was most probably caused reduction in coal mining operations world wide between 1990 and the year 2000 and a lag in increased methane levels of about eight years .
Coal mining operations started to ramp up after 2000but methane levels in Hawaii started to increase again around 2008 and have been slowly rising for the last ten years by 100 parts per billion over this time which is a total a 1 millionth increase over ten years ,
Graham Anderson
Some more facts from the above post.
The difference between methane emissions and methane sinks are very hard to calculate and they vary between researches mainly on when they undertook their study and the figures that are published are estimates with fairly large error bars.
The differences range between 13 TG and 52TG which in laymen terms is 13 million tonnes to 52 million tonnes .
Methane levels in the atmosphere are measured around the world but the measurement that is agreed on is from the observatory in Hawaii.
The energy sector methane emissions also vary from 75 TG to 110 TG but all this methane is extracted from below the earths surface and if the fugitive emissions from oil and gas fields were curtailed by 50% methane levels in the atmosphere would start to fall ,
As I have stated before blame the real problem and stop blaming livestock .
Graham Anderson.