[Terrapreta] two recent articles on TP

[Richard Haard]

Seriously most of the methane is belched not passed out the GI tract.

Sheep, Goats, Cows, Elk, Buffalo, Elephants are all animals with  
complex, partitioned stomachs though different between groups.

 From Wikipedia

Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a digestive system that  
allows them to utilize otherwise indigestible foods by repeatedly  
regurgitating and rechewing them as "cud." The cud is then reswallowed  
and further digested by specialized microorganisms that live in the  
rumen. These microbes are primarily responsible for breaking down  
cellulose and other carbohydrates into volatile fatty acids (VFAs)  
that cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel. The microbes that  
live inside of the rumen are also able to synthesize amino acids from  
non-protein nitrogenous sources such as urea and ammonia. As these  
microbes reproduce in the rumen older generations die and their  
carcasses continue on through the digestive tract. Theses carcasses  
are then partially digested by the cattle, allowing it to gain a high  
quality protein source. These features allow cattle to thrive on  
grasses and other vegetation.
-----
and

Enteric Fermentation
It is one of the factors in increased methane emissions. Ruminant  
animals are those that have a rumen. A rumen is a special stomach  
found in cows, sheep, and water buffalo that enables them to eat tough  
plants and grains that monogastric animals, such as humans, dogs, and  
cats, cannot digest.
Enteric fermentation occurs when methane (CH4) is produced in the  
rumen as microbial fermentation takes place. Over 200 species of  
microorganisms are present in the rumen, although only about 10% of  
these play an important role in digestion. Most of the CH4 byproduct  
is belched by the animal, however, a small percentage of CH4 is also  
produced in the large intestine and passed out as gas.
In Australia ruminant animals account for over half of their green  
house gas contribution from methane.[1] Australia has implemented a  
voluntary immunization program for cattle in order to help reduce  
flatulence-produced CH4
------------

Hence the abundance of methane in their gut is derived from microbial  
digestion of grasses and other cellulose rich vegetation. When I was  
teaching we would collect both termites and slaughterhouse cattle  
stomach contents in order to study this wonderous community of  
protozoans who indirectly give us food.

Come to think I have not eaten many termites lately, but Yogurt - Yes.

On Feb 29, 2008, at 5:24 PM, Michael Bailes wrote:

>
> A Belch is just one gust of wind,
> That cometh from thy Heart...
> But should it take the downward trend,
> It turns into a Fart
>
> Thank you for you erudite comments
> M
>
> On 01/03/2008, Kevin Chisholm <kchisholm at ca.inter.net> wrote:
> Dear Michael
>
>
> Michael Bailes wrote:
> > Do goats fart?
> > or burp?
>
>
> They are probably like dogs ... only the Neighbour's dog farts. ;-)
>
> At any rate, Dauncy's claims about "If we only got away from cows, we
> would solve our problem" is trival and misdirecting. Cows and termites
> and goats and living things eat food that contains carbon and hydrogen
> that came from the Biosphere, and simply return them to the Biosphere,
> with no net addition.
>
> Such claims misdirect effort away from activities that could make a
> difference. For example, if he was advocating burial of char, he might
> make a difference.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Kevin
>
> > M
> >
> > On 01/03/2008, *Gerald Van Koeverden* <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca
>
> > <mailto:vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>> wrote:
> >
> >     Always when Westerners think about red meat, they think about
> >     cows!  Did you know that 68% of the world's red meat comes  
> from goats?
> >
> >     Gerrit
> >
> >
> >     On 29-Feb-08, at 4:18 PM, Michael Bailes wrote:
> >
> >>     **
> >>     Spring 2008: Climate Solutions
> >>
> >>     *The Solution on our Dinner Plates*
>
> >>     /by Guy Dauncey/
> >>      Print this articleEmail this article to a friend
> >>     AddThis Social Bookmark Button <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php 
> >
>
> >>
> >>
> >>     What we can do about food and forests :: Changes from the  
> ground up
> >>
> >>     Total global emissions are the equivalent of 31.6 gigatonnes of
> >>     CO2 annually.
> >>     The world's agricultural meat industry contributes 5.7  
> gigatonnes
> >>     of that, and 6.3 gigatonnes comes from forest destruction.
> >>
> >>      Eighteen percent of the climate change problem is associated
> >>     with raising, feeding, and transporting meat. Cutting back on
> >>     meat consumption is a way to immediately reduce climate impact.
>
> >>     Picture of Cow. Photo by Dagmar Nelson, milkaway.smugmug.com
>
> >>      Eighteen percent of the climate change problem is associated
> >>     with raising, feeding, and transporting meat. Cutting back on
> >>     meat consumption is a way to immediately reduce climate impact.
> >>     Photo by Dagmar Nelson, milkaway.smugmug.com
>
> >>     <http://milkaway.smugmug.com/>
>
> >>
> >>     The farm industries that put beef, pork, and dairy on our  
> dinner
> >>     tables account for 18 percent of global greenhouse emissions—a
> >>     larger share than all the world's transportation.
> >>
> >>     Animal agriculture unleashes some of the most baneful  
> greenhouse
> >>     gases—methane from cows' stomachs (25 times stronger than CO2)
> >>     and nitrous oxide from animal manure and the use of nitrogen
> >>     fertilizer (298 times more potent than CO2). And too often,  
> both
> >>     cows and animal feed are raised on slashed and burned  
> rainforest
> >>     land, releasing more CO2.
> >>
> >>     The solution lies on our dinner plates. We need to eat less  
> meat
> >>     and dairy, turning instead to the tastes, pleasures, and health
> >>     benefits of vegetarian food. If locally grown and organic, so
> >>     much the better, since organic farming stores carbon in the  
> soil,
> >>     and eating locally grown reduces the carbon emissions from
> >>     shipping. Research shows that organic farming can produce as  
> much
> >>     food as industrialized farming in the developed world and
> >>     increase yields two to three-fold in developing countries
> >>     (because many of their existing farming methods are less
> >>     productive to begin with).
> >>
> >>     The destruction of the world's tropical rainforests releases 17
> >>     percent of the world's carbon emissions. We must go out of our
> >>     way to protect the forests in the Amazon, Congo, and  
> Indonesia by
> >>     buying threatened forests, placing them in trust for indigenous
> >>     inhabitants, and paying for policing against illegal loggers.
> >>
>
> >>     Gaviotas <http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=842>, a
>
> >>     social experiment in the barren savannah lands of eastern
> >>     Colombia, provides one inspiring model. The visionary  
> Gavioteros
> >>     have created a thriving carbon-neutral community complete with
> >>     hospital, solar water treatment plant, and wind turbines. By
> >>     planting trees, they have begun changing local rainfall cycles
> >>     and restoring ancient rainforest—all in what was an almost
> >>     uninhabitable landscape, proving that anything is possible.
> >>
> >>     Another miracle goes by the name terra preta
>
> >>     <http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2422>—rich, black
>
> >>     charcoal soil that stores huge quantities of carbon while  
> making
> >>     the land more fertile.
> >>
> >>     As we enter the post-carbon world, we must learn how to
> >>     reharmonize farming and forestry with nature's carbon cycles.
> >>
> >>      
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>     Guy Dauncey wrote this article as part of Stop Global Warming
>
> >>     Cold <http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2416>, the  
> Spring
>
> >>     2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Guy is a speaker, organizer,
> >>     consultant, and author with Patrick Mazza of Stormy Weather:  
> 101
> >>     Solutions to Global Climate Change, New Society Publishers.
> >>
> >>
> >>       Carbon tamed to work two ways
> >>
>
> >>     Article from: The Mercury <http://www.news.com.au/mercury/>
> >>
> >>         * Font size: Decrease
> >>           <http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23162520-5006550,00.html# 
> >
> >>           Increase
> >>           <http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23162520-5006550,00.html# 
> >
> >>
> >>         * Email article: Email
> >>           <http://www.news.com.au/mercury/email/popup/0,22904,23162520-5006550,00.html 
> >
> >>
> >>         * Print article: Print
> >>         * Submit comment: Submit comment
> >>           <http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23162520-5006550,00.html#submit-feedback 
> >
>
> >>
> >>
> >>     PETER BOYER
> >>
> >>     February 05, 2008 12:00am
> >>
> >>     *CARBON is the essence of life. Large proportions of it are in
> >>     our bodies and in every living thing on the planet. Animals
> >>     breathe it out as carbon dioxide and plants grow by taking it  
> in
> >>     -- part of the carbon cycle, the cycle of life.*
> >>
> >>     Except that our own species has found many new ways of putting
> >>     extra carbon into the atmosphere, throwing the cycle of life  
> out
> >>     of kilter and endangering all the life-forms it has sustained
> >>     down the millennia.
> >>
> >>     We've left nothing alone. While burning Earth's fossil  
> deposits,
> >>     polluting its atmosphere and pushing our soils to produce more
> >>     food, we've also degraded their capacity to do so. We're a
> >>     demanding species.
> >>
> >>     We're also clever. What we've done, we ought to be able to  
> undo.
> >>     If only we can get our act together, we ought to be able to put
> >>     our minds to how we might stop so much carbon entering our
> >>     atmosphere.
> >>
> >>     Most talk about carbon storage (sequestration) has focused on  
> the
> >>     technology of "clean coal", whereby carbon emitted from
> >>     coal-fired power stations would be captured and put into
> >>     underground vaults.
> >>
> >>     The technology demanded by the clean-coal idea is complex,
> >>     expensive and unproven, and it requires large-scale centralised
> >>     systems. But the climate crisis demands decentralised  
> solutions,
> >>     with shared responsibility for action and distributed power
> >>     generation.
> >>
> >>     Here's an idea that, unlike clean coal, is within reach of  
> local
> >>     authorities and serves multiple purposes. While keeping carbon
> >>     out of the atmosphere and generating electricity, it can also
> >>     make our soils more productive.
> >>
> >>     Tasmania has no shortage of plant waste, rich in carbon. Much  
> of
> >>     it disappears into the atmosphere by burning or is left to rot
> >>     and relinquish its carbon over time. We can put it to better  
> use.
> >>
> >>     Biochar ("bio" as in plant matter and "char" as in charcoal)  
> is a
> >>     product that its advocates believe can replicate the ways in
> >>     which the world's most fertile soils -- "terra preta" or "dark
> >>     earth" -- cycle their nutrients, hold their water and grow  
> plants
> >>     better than anywhere else.
> >>
> >>     Biochar is basically small granules of charcoal obtained  
> through
> >>     heating plant waste in an age-old process called pyrolysis, by
> >>     which we once produced charcoal for fuel. Modern pyrolysis
> >>     technology reduces carbon emissions to practically zero while
> >>     producing heat that can generate sufficient electricity to  
> power
> >>     some small industrial plants.
> >>
> >>     The residue from the process is carbon in the form of biochar,
> >>     which has the capacity to revitalise our soils, giving
> >>     long-lasting fertility while also improving moisture-carrying
> >>     capacity.
> >>
> >>     That's making carbon work for us, not against us. Which is the
> >>     way nature always intended.
> >>
> >>     *Peter Boyer is a writer, illustrator and publisher who has
> >>     written extensively about science. Since 2006 he has been a
> >>     presenter for The Climate Project (Australia).
>
> >>     peterboyer at southwind.com.au  
> <mailto:peterboyer at southwind.com.au>*
>
> >>     --
> >>     Michael the Archangel
> >>
> >>     "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
> >>     Most people don't know that"
> >>     FROM
> >>     http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
> >>     _______________________________________________
> >>     Terrapreta mailing list
>
> >>     Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org <mailto:Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
> >
>
> >>     http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
> >>     http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> >>     http://info.bioenergylists.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Michael the Archangel
> >
> > "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
> > Most people don't know that"
> > FROM
> > http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
>
> >  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Terrapreta mailing list
> > Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
> > http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> > http://info.bioenergylists.org
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Michael the Archangel
>
> "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
> Most people don't know that"
> FROM
> http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf  
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
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