Skippy Could Help Combat Global Warming

What's that Skippy, its going dark and Timmy's still not come home but your not going to look for him because you've got more important things to do like help combat global warming?

Well ok Skippy you know best.

Could skippy stop cows farting and end global warming?
We all know kangaroos are pretty special, but it's their lack of flatulence, or more precisely the lack of methane emissions, that has researchers excited.

While they eat pretty much the same thing, cows end up producing a lot of methane, and kangaroos don't.

Researchers think a whopping 10 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions could be permanently eliminated if scientists can introduce microbes found in the stomach of kangaroos into livestock feed.

Dr Athol Klieve is a senior research scientist in microbial biotechnology at the DPI, "When you ferment grass in the stomach like kangaroos do, they produce hydrogen, and you have to get rid of that hydrogen, or it slows down and stops the fermentation of the material...The production of methane is actually one solution to the problem of getting rid of hydrogen...There are alternative mechanisms of getting rid of that of that hydrogen. One of these is to produce acetate. Acetate is used by the animal as a major part of its energy resources.

As strange as it may seem Kangaroo's that crazy hopping creature from the land down under could be the solution to the problem of cows contributing to global warming through their methane production, aka farting.

While Kangaroo's and Cow's both eat a similar diet, Kangaroo's unlike Cow's don't produce methane due to a difference in how they deal with the removal of hydrogen.
Cows remove the hydrogen as methane through some no doubt fascinating process, where as Kangaroo's use bacteria to change the hydrogen into acetate.

So if scientists can use the same bacteria in Cow's as are currently in Kangaroo's a way could have been found to chip away at the planet's contribution to global warming.

And lets not forget, its humanity who bred such large numbers of cows for our own needs, so its our fault technically not the cows.

Thanks Skippy


[edit on 7-10-2006 by UK Wizard]

That is amazing! It's sort of similiar to that fungal spore that are sold over the counter that gets rid of the stink from eating beans.

What are the side-effects though? Does it accumulate in the system? Does it get passed onto their young? Before we jump into this, it's gotta be tested, but still very encouraging. Hope it works in humans too.

[edit on 7-10-2006 by sardion2000]

I think they should just attach huge bags or pipes to the cows bottoms to capture the methane.

Solve the energy crisis with all that methane!

(Not realistic, I know, but something to think about. I was yesterday...don't know why though....)