MÔI TRƯỜNG và KHÍ HẬU THAY ĐỔI

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

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Global methane from the livestock industry underestimated - 5 Jul 2010

Through recalculations based on a new approach, US researchers from the University of Missouri have concluded that the amounts of methane emitted from the waste on dairy and pig farms could be underestimated by as much as 65%.

US factory farms, which house thousands of animals at a time in one building, are often forced to dispose of the overwhelming quantities of waste in manure “lagoons,” open and untreated cesspits holding up to millions of gallons of liquid waste.

Although these livestock waste lagoons generate toxic methane gas as a byproduct, they are rarely measured due to the technical difficulty and high costs. As a result, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been estimating the emissions of this potent greenhouse gas based on a certain United Nations formula. However, the scientists found that the lagoons generated methane more rapidly than calculated by the UN formula.

This, combined with other equation updates, suggested the current methane emissions could be up to two-thirds higher than estimated. In addition, the report stated that other farmed animal operations may in fact be producing methane pollution beyond the threshold currently required for reporting to the EPA such as livestock farms with less than 3,200 dairy cows or 34,100 pigs.The harmful effects of livestock manure on environment and health due were further described by US investigative journalist David Kirby in an interview.

David Kirby – Award winning US investigative journalist, author of “Animal Factory” (M): There are all the gases that come up off the lagoons, that come out of the barns themselves, and that come from the spray fields, where when they have to get rid this liquid waste. Of course, if the wind comes, well that’s great for the farmer, because he’s just gotten rid of several hundreds of gallons of liquid that just flew away out in the air.
The lagoons themselves give off gas, and they emit methane, which is very hazardous to human health; hydrogen sulfide, which can cause neurological disorders, depression, anxiety, even suicide, aggression – hydrogen sulfide is a horrible thing to be exposed to; and ammonia.

VOICE: Our appreciation, Mr. Kirby and University of Missouri researchers for your factual observations that help quantify this harmful greenhouse gas. With such serious considerations as these, may governments and individuals make the urgent and necessary shift to low-emission, humane plant-based agriculture to save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has conveyed on many occasions her concern for the environmental impact of animal farming, as during this September 2009 videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The animals and their waste also produce very potent greenhouse gases, like methane and nitrous oxide, even other toxic gases. Methane is up to 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Respected scientists recalculated and found that the meat industry is actually producing more than 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Meat is the number one cause of global warming. So, the number one solution is to stop producing it. Logical, yes? So, we all have to be vegan. That is what the science is clearly telling us right now.

http://www.physorg.com/news196618186.html

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1884745/scientists_question_epa_estimates_of_greenhouse_gas_emissions/

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=1671&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Nitrous oxide and methane emissions recalculated - 20 Jul 2010

Although CO2 emissions are typically believed to be the primary source of global warming, a study conducted by Dutch government researcher Dr. Petra Kroon has found that non-CO2 emissions, specifically those from methane and nitrous oxide, have in fact been underestimated due to inaccurate measuring methods.

By devising an innovative technique to measure the emission of these gases, Dr. Kroon, who was conducting research on behalf of the Netherlands’ Energy Research Center and Delft University of Technology, was able to calculate their contributions more accurately.

She found that the previous methods used by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for measuring these gases would account in the Netherlands for 14% percent of overall greenhouse gas emissions, and 23% globally.

However, Dr. Kroon’s newly available technology and methods that allowed measurements across several hectares continuously yielded vastly different measurements, which were also calculated with a much higher degree of certainty.

Using this technique, Dr. Kroon found, for example, that 70% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions in a peat pasture area used for intensive dairy farming were attributed to methane and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide and methane are known to be linked to agriculture, with the methane mostly released from cattle and nitrous oxide emitted primarily by their manure as well as fertilizers. These two gases are also known to have a much higher global warming potential than CO2, which could change other calculations considerably.

Our appreciation, Dr. Kroon, the Netherlands and Delft University of Technology for this insightful research.

May individuals and governments alike quickly adopt more sustainable ways such as organic vegan farming to cool and restore our planetary balance. During a November 2009 videoconference in the United States, Supreme Master Ching Hai discussed research findings that also confirmed the significance of nitrous oxide and methane and their main source in animal agriculture.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Now, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that livestock raising is the single largest human use of land, the biggest source of water pollution, the number one cause of biodiversity loss, and the top producer of human-caused methane and nitrous oxide.

Furthermore, NASA announced that methane actually contributes much more to global warming than previously understood and it traps 100 times the atmospheric heat over 20 years.
And the largest source of methane is? You know - livestock. There is an advantage of time here, because one aspect of methane is that it dissipates in around 12 year’s time, whereas carbon dioxide, CO2, stays in the atmosphere for up to thousands of years.

So, we remove the livestock-generated methane, and the planet cools fast!
I am positive we will do it. Yes? We can make it – just a little change, just a little change. Just a little piece of animal meat, change to vegetable protein.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100701090330.htm

http://www.ecn.nl/nl/nieuws/item/date/2010/07/01/emissies-van-broeikasgassen-methaan-en-lachgas-onderschat/

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=1679&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Warming Arctic oceans could result in devastating methane release - 30 Jul 2010

US researchers now estimate climate change is accelerating the likely melt of frozen, deep-sea methane hydrates, leading to the potential discharge of an overwhelming 16,000 metric tons of methane annually.

Although the methane would initially be consumed by marine microbes, these would release CO2 with a resulting imbalance that could result in numerous dead zones, where the water would lose as much as 95% of its life-sustaining oxygen.

In addition, the microbial production of CO2 would increase ocean acidity, jeopardizing the survival of many species and disrupting marine ecosystems. As a further side effect, key nutrients such as nitrate, copper and iron that are useful to organisms would also be depleted due to the activity of the microbes.

Experts have detected large seafloor methane stores beneath waters throughout the Arctic as well as in the North Pacific Oceans, with some lakes and seas already showing the bubbling of methane plumes and similar microbial processes.

Study co-author Dr. Scott M. Elliot, a marine biogeochemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA, stated, “This will be a truly big environmental pollution problem in the next few decades.

This problem is not going to go away.”

Our appreciation, Dr. Elliot and colleagues, for alerting us to this destructive scenario being formed beneath our oceans. Let us quickly adopt more sustainable lifestyles to avoid such dire outcomes to the planet.

During a September 2008 interview on the US-based Environmentally Sound Radio, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the threat of methane release in the context of global warming, while highlighting the way for human prevention.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You look all that and you see already because the methane gas and hydrogen sulfide are resulted from animal raising, and that produces a lot of toxic gas into the air and it warms the atmosphere, and then the atmosphere melts the ice and the ocean will be warm, and then more methane and other toxins will be released from the bottom of the ocean and permafrost and all that. And then it will be like a devil’s circle. I hope we stop it quick.

If we do not do anything, then we will go to the point of no return. But luckily, because due to many new vegetarian people joining the vegetarian diet, now we have delayed the point of no return.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60831/title
/Methane_releases_in_arctic_seas_could_wreak_devastation

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=1684&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Antarctic melt is speeding methane releas - 23 Sep 2010

On a recent trip to the Antarctic Peninsula, Argentine geologist Dr. Rodolfo del Valle witnessed continuous bubbling under certain areas of the water’s surface. Measurements revealed that the bubbles were 99% methane gas.

With ice shelves in Western Antarctica and the Peninsula already noted to be melting due to climate change, the additional release of methane could, due to its potency, accelerate global warming beyond what scientists have described as an irreversible tipping point, leading then to immense Earth changes.

Dr. del Valle is now working to determine the potential impact of this greenhouse gas as he stated, “We believe there is a huge amount of destabilized methane deposits that may leak into the atmosphere and ramp up warming.”

He went on to speak of the changes seen throughout significant periods of geologic history, saying, “Of seven major mass extinctions that erased 90% of the species at the time, five are attributable to climate change, and one in particular – at the Permo-Triassic boundary – could be directly attributable to mass methane release in the Upper Paleozoic.”

Dr. del Valle, we appreciate your work alerting us to this most recent evidence of continued climate change. Let us join in a rapid response to preserve a habitable ecosystem for all beings while we still have time.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has cautioned on previous occasions about the risks of methane release due to global warming, while also highlighting an effective way to stop it, as during a September 2008 interview on the US-based Environmentally Sound Radio.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You look all that and you see already because the methane gas and hydrogen sulfide are resulted from animal raising, and that produces a lot of toxic gas into the air and it warms the atmosphere, and then the atmosphere melts the ice and the ocean will be warm, and then more methane and other toxins will be released from the bottom of the ocean and permafrost and all that. And then it will be like a devil’s circle. I hope we stop it quick.

If we do not do anything, then we will goto the point of no return. But luckily, because due to many new vegetarian people joining the vegetarian diet, now we have delayed the point of no return.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-methane-lakes/

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=1767&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Permafrost at Mt. Fuji and in Siberia melting at alarming rate - 28 Sep 2010

A study by researchers at Shizuoka University and the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan studying permafrost loss on Mt. Fuji has revealed that the thaw rate is much faster than expected.

In 1976, the layer of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, existed at elevations of 3,100 meters and above. Today, the scientists find permafrost only in patches around the 3,776 meter peak, along with an increase in average August temperatures from 4.2 degrees Celsius in 1976 to 6.6 degrees in 2009. In a related study, a team of scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno in the USA led by Dr. Sudeep Chandra have been collecting permafrost samples in Siberia, Russia.

There, they discovered earth that had been frozen for the past 10,000 years is now releasing methane gas into the atmosphere. This is a concern because the permafrost layer contains immense stores of methane, which as a greenhouse gas has 100 times the warming potential of CO2. This gaseous release then traps more heat in the atmosphere, which in turn melts more permafrost, creating a cycle that could set off an irreversible warming process, with catastrophic consequences.

International scientists, we appreciate your research on this aspect of global warming, despite its disturbing implications. Let us engage in rapid actions to renew our harmony with nature and restore conditions that are conducive to human survival.

During an August 2009 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed this alarming aspect of global warming and spoke of the one way to halt the release of methane into the atmosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we don’t turn around and walk in the opposite direction, then we are heading toward destruction of all kinds. You see planetary warming, methane gas from all sides: from all sides now, not just from livestock. But because of livestock, it triggers methane gas from all sides: from the river bed or from the permafrost,
from the bed of the ocean, from the mountains, from the dying forests, do you understand?

So we are surrounded by trouble. There’s only one escape route that I have told you already. I wish there were several. There’s only one: Be Veg. That’s the path to go, then maybe we still can have time.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201009090330.html

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1969767,00.html

http://x-journals.com/2010/researchers-find-receding-permafrost-in-siberian-arctic/

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=1769&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Continued Arctic methane release raises threat of runaway global warming - 2 Jan 2011

Researchers studying the climate in the Arctic regions of Siberia, Canada and Alaska, USA, have confirmed that the rate at which methane is now being released into the atmosphere from the melting tundra region's permafrost could soon exceed dangerous tipping points, beyond which humans' ability to mitigate climate change may become futile.

In these regions, the permafrost has been frozen for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years. However, climate change-induced temperature rise is causing permafrost in areas such as Siberia to melt, releasing some of the region's estimated 50 billion tons of stored methane, over ten times the amount currently in the atmosphere.

Dr. Katey Walter Anthony of the University of Alaska, who for the past decade has been studying the tundra and its reaction to global warming, stated, “If permafrost were to thaw suddenly, in a flash, it would put a tremendous amount of carbon in the atmosphere. We would feel temperatures warming across the globe. And that would be serious.”

An international team of scientists recently analyzing the underwater Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf region also discovered that the constant release of methane into the relatively shallow ocean waters there is causing them to become supersaturated, raising concerns that further release of the vast underground methane stores could set off irreversible warming at any time.

Thank you, Dr. Walter Anthony and colleagues, for reminding us of the gravely precarious situation presented by global warming. May we all comprehend the magnitude of the threat to life on Earth and quickly act to save our beautiful planet.

During a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke with concern about the urgency of our situation as she has on previous occasions, while highlighting the most effective measures necessary to reverse our global predicament.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It is an urgent situation indeed. I would say that the most serious one is the frightening prospect of runaway global warming, the frightening aspect that nations will not do enough to stop it.

This runaway warming of the climate could easily be caused by melting permafrost, which is the frozen soil extending across the vast expanse of the Arctic tundra.

Since 2007, scientists have seen more and more evidence of methane from permafrost melt This irreversible effect, we want to avoid at all costs, especially since it may not be as far away as we would like to think.

So please, be a part of the solution and join in first by being vegan yourself and helping to spread this message as much, as quickly as possible:

Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet.

http://planetsave.com/2010/04/22/wide-spread-release-of-methane-from-arctic-shelf-confirmed/,

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jjYeZ6CljP5WPUMPKT46K55ptc6Q?
docId=237b67d9146241d69a5b6294ae04404d

http://planetsave.com/2010/11/26/methane-the-sleeper-agent-of-climate-change/

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-
8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftribunadonorte.com.br%2Fnoticia%
2Fderretimento-de-gelo-gera-problemas%2F167388

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=2334&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Account from scientists calculates methane emissions from freshwater sediments - 21 Jan 2011

An international team of researchers for the first time have estimated the methane gas being emitted by fresh water areas such as lakes and rivers. The study, recently published in the journal Science, showed that these emissions reduce the net absorption of greenhouse gases by land ecosystems such as forests by at least 25%.

According to lead author Professor David Baskvilken from Linköping University in Sweden, whereas small methane emissions from fresh water bodies occur continuously, abrupt larger emissions may also occur that are difficult to measure. Team member Dr. John Downing of Iowa State University in the USA stated, “The bottom line is that we have uncovered an important accounting error in the global carbon budget. Acre for acre, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams are many times more active in carbon processing than seas or land surfaces, so they need to be included.”

Meanwhile, numerous other surveys have found plumes of methane escaping from sea floor sediments beneath the Arctic Ocean and other underwater regions. Although cold temperatures and high pressure have kept the methane in a frozen state for centuries past, recent destabilization due to human-caused global warming could eventually trigger a widespread release of the potent greenhouse gas at a rate of 16,000 tons per year.

Research oceanographer Dr. Tony Koslow from the University of California San Diego, USA explained.
Tony Koslow - Research oceanographer - University of California San Diego, USA (M): If the sea temperatures increase sufficiently, that would lead to the release of these methane clathrates, these frozen methane in the deep sea. And once that process starts it would just snowball.

VOICE: Oceanographers also forecast that such a release would generate too many methane- consuming microbes, creating an imbalance as they consume the water's dissolved oxygen and generate carbon dioxide. The resulting oxygen depletion and acidification of the oceans would disrupt ecosystems and form dead zones, which in turn would undermine a vital oxygen source for the entire planet. Dr. Koslow points to a major marine mass extinction event in the past.

Tony Koslow (M): One of the real concerns is that about 55 million years ago, the best available evidence is that much of the methane that was trapped in the deep ocean was released very suddenly in geological terms, and this led to a huge warming. And it actually led to the extinction of much of the life in the oceans.

When paleoecologists discovered this, only within about the last 10, 20 years it's really changed people's perspective on how climate change can happen; very, very rapidly and how it can happen through the release of this frozen methane. The key is that we really have to contain global climate change.

VOICE: Our appreciation, international scientists for informing us of the potentially catastrophic impacts of unleashing underwater methane. May we act swiftly together to mitigate global warming so that the biosphere and planet may be preserved.

During an international gathering with our Association members in February 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the release of methane and its link to global warming, urging for the simple way to halt it.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You see, the gases are fuming from the ocean and from the land that's been deforested. It's fuming everywhere. It's just that at the moment, it's not so intense. But it'll be more and more intense if we don't do something.

Everybody knows by now, from the UN Report that meat eating, animal raising, it's one of the worst factors, or even the worst factor of global warming. And nobody talks about it.

What is so difficult, to put down one piece of meat, and replace it with one piece of tofu. Which is exactly the same, better nutrition. Better for your health. More economized.

http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/yournews/44766OLD

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60831/title
/Methane_releases_in_arctic_seas_could_wreak_devastation

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=2412&page=1#v

[Nhím Hoàng Kim]

Melting permafrost intensifies greenhouse gases - 23 Feb 2011

Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences have for the first time quantified the amount of carbon that could be released into the atmosphere as the Arctic permafrost melts.

Using computer modeling, the scientists showed that within about a decade, carbon dioxide and methane from the thawing plant material that has been frozen in soil since the last glacial period that ended about 12,000 years ago, will turn the entire Arctic tundra region into a global source of carbon, instead of remaining a carbon sink.

Within a century, the Arctic meltdown could release about 95 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to half the total fossil fuel emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Age. Lead author, Dr. Kevin Schaefer noted that even the most conservative estimates from this projection would make a significant difference to the Earth's climate.

He stated, “If we want to hit a target carbon dioxide concentration, then we have to reduce fossil fuel emissions… much lower than previously thought to account for this additional carbon from the permafrost. Otherwise we will end up with a warmer Earth than we want.”

Our sincere thanks, Dr. Schaefer and University of Colorado colleagues for these revealing insights into the precarious situation of the Arctic permafrost. Let us join together in rapid measures to protect the planet and secure the survival of all co-inhabitants on Earth.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often highlighted the need for humanity to safeguard the ecosphere from potential sources of runaway global warming, as in this interview published in the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : According to Dr. Hansen, our planet is on a dangerous course to passing irreversible tipping points with disastrous consequences. These you know already,

like the melting of permafrost which in turn releases toxic methane gas, resulting in more warming of the atmosphere.

The reason scientists are now turning their attention to methane is that research has shown this gas has a heating capacity 100 times greater than CO2 within the first 5 years.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization states that livestock is the single largest human-caused source of methane and accounts for 37% of total greenhouse gases.

Thus, if meat eating were to be halted, methane production from livestock would be minimized, and then, consequently all the methane from the permafrost will also be stopped, then we will still have time to handle the CO2. It's very logical, scientifically speaking and otherwise. So, being veg means saving our planet.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/sci_tech/melting-permafrost-to-emit-carbon-equal-to-half-all-industrial-emissions-study-116341429.html,

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/02/16/Thawing-permafrost-will-release-carbon/UPI-50631297893151/#ixzz1EGaejNw9

http://www.suprememastertv.com/au/runaway-methane-global-warming/?wr_id=2448&page=1#v