Nature's Help Against Greenhouse Effect? Earthworm Excretions Could Help Raise more Plants that Use Carbon Dioxide

   The whole idea is that worms’ fecal matter (yeah… yuks!) transforms carbon into its more decay resistant form, gets deeper in the soil, and it’s nutritious to plants which are the ones helping transform CO2 into O2. These excrements also add physical structure to the soil that holds the carbon, reducing erosion and making it crumbly which helps plants grow. On top of that, earthworms also burrow in the soil creating passages that aerate and help water circulate, which is what plants need to be healthy.

   But is it all good? Why are we finding this now? There are some other investigations that actually show the contrary, that earthworms just contribute adding to the greenhouse gas emissions. How is that? As they go through their soil-transforming business, eating from the soil and digesting it, they are actually releasing the already trapped carbon in such soil. These investigations indicated these worms could be causing one third of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

   Even if such researches do seem to collide and pull in different directions, they both agree the earthworms have unmistakable benefits. This is why more studies are being conducted to determine if the earthworms’ fertilization of the soil can truly boost plant growth and outweigh their own carbon footprint, which we know, we all do by just existing.

Source

Kerling, Kat. "'Global Worming': Earthworms Contribute to Climate Change: UC Davis News & Information." UC Davis News & Information. UCDAVIS, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. http://goo.gl/3SgUUi

Cattle and garlic. How a Natural Change in Eating Habits can Help the Environment.

    Livestock farts a lot. Cows and other cattle account for 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions releasing millions of tons of the potent methane each year. An easy solution (besides starting mass vegetarianism which is less probable) to this could be feeding cattle a bunch of garlic and oats, which are known to kill the methane-producing stomach bacteria that cause deadly flatulence. This could cut the stinky emissions as much as a quarter so these new diets could reduce to 3% the greenhouse responsibility that cattle has.

    There were serious researches run by Aberystwyth, Bangor and Reading universities measuring the amount of methane burped out by farm animals in specially designed polytunnels. Still, it’s admitted there could be side effects as scientists still work out how much of an effect the garlic extract has on the actual taste of beef and milk. Scientists are looking at other kinds of garlic metabolites which would achieve the same effect, but without this downside.

    Despite this unwanted side effect, there could also be two other positive side effects: thanks to these new diets the profits of farmers could improve as it's believed the new feeds could also improve beef production and boost milk yield, also the garlic industry worldwide would expand several times. The environment wins and the economies win as well...

Source

Rupp, Rebecca. "How Garlic May Save the World." The Plate How Garlic May Save the World Comments. National Geographic, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. <http://goo.gl/xC4BQe>

Fertilize the ocean with iron. Crazy? No! Read along….

  A major step towards reducing climate change may well come from creating new plant life in the ocean, and what better organism to use than plankton that is one of the most important carbon sinks on the planet. These tiny organisms absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen by the ton as they undergo photosynthesis. When plankton dies, they take the carbon to the bottom of the ocean with them.

  Many scientists have proposed dumping large amounts of iron into the ocean to stimulate the growth of mineral-hungry organisms, like plankton. Actually, the private company Planktos Inc. of California has already attempted this. Another alternative that was suggested is to use massive wave-powered pumps to force nutrient-rich water from the colder deep ocean to the warmer surface, which would induce large plankton blooms.

  However, one of the greatest challenges in having success with these projects isn’t necessarily the availability of iron or money to run them, but finding ways to prevent the plankton from being consumed by other ravenous sea creatures, which would basically send the absorbed carbon right back into the atmosphere.

Source:

Powell, Hugh. "Fertilizing the Ocean with Iron: Should We Add Iron to the Sea to Help Reduce Greenhouse Gases in the Air?" OCEANUS Magazine 13 Nov. 2007. Print. < http://goo.gl/r8bJfF>

Climate conversation

The first Climate Conversation was a success!  Not only did we have a good turn out of 23 participants, but we were in the Northerner (http://www.thenortherner.com/news/2015/02/04/climate-conversation-has-nku-seeing-green/).  

The participants looked at climate issues at the global and local perspective.  The purpose of these conversations are for all participants to hear about the topic from a myriad of perspectives.  This will hopefully empower as well as educate everyone about this complex and multifaceted issue. 

The next Climate Conversation is on February 27th at 12:00pm in MEP 292.   Hope to see you there!