Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with methane

Help me calculate my carbon ass-print.

dr. boludo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:46:46 -0800

How much does my flatulence contribute to climate change? I'm a pretty typical granola liberal -- I commute by bicycle almost all the time, and I eat a lot of legumes. Consequently, I fart a lot. I recently joked that probably the biggest part of my carbon footprint is actually my butt. This, of course, got me thinking: Could it really be? I understand that methane is orders of magnitude more significant than CO2 in contributing to global warming.

Given this data: male, early 30s, 175 lbs, I'd estimate an average of 30 very healthy sized farts per day (I have neither the equipment nor the inclination to obtain a more precise volumetric measurement, sorry)...

What is the estimated environmental impact of my ass as compared to other typical activities? How many commuting miles (city driving, 1998 Toyota Corolla) would I need to replace with bicycling or walking miles to make my digestive tract carbon neutral?

Come on AskMe, I know you like overthinking plates of beans!

Cos more methane from mouth or dung?

beelover — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:22:29 -0800

Is it possible to say whether more methane is produced from cow feces or their mouths? How political is this topic? I thought I read in the NY Times about some studies in Australia/NZ that methane emission from cow dung may not be nearly as significant as the methane released from their mouths. I mentioned this to someone trying to harness the methane from fecal lagoons for energy and it has started a bit of a jovial debate. Apparently my friend spoke to the cow caca methane guru and is gleefully waiting to send some proof that this is not true (the guru apparently also had not nice words to say about "people like me"). Harumph to him too. Well, people like me can be hard-headed so now I am curious. I know these issues can be deeply politicized and statistics work wonders in all kinds of ways so what's the scoop on methane from poop versus mouth? Any good respected, neutral info/studies/reports out there you can point me to?

Thanks!

Cow jumps over Moon, details at eleven

misha — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:21:06 -0800

~~I am asking this for my kids~~ I am writing a book and researching what would happen (both physiologically and on a larger scope) if pure nitroglycerin were injected into a cow, which (as we all know) is just brimming over with methane? [NOT COWIST]

What should an environmentally aware meat-eater avoid?

Hogshead — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:22:47 -0800

We all know that the world's cattle herds pump a significant amount of methane into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Are other farmed animals better or worse for the environment, comparatively? Is eating red meat significantly worse for the planet than eating the same amount of poultry? Are there studies, numbers and league tables on this? Because we're intelligent people we already know (or at least we've been told) that it takes ten kilos of grain to raise a kilo of beef; and we can work out that intensive farming techniques that produce lakes of sewage are going to be worse for the environment than techniques that don't. But kilo-for-kilo, what forms of meat are better or worse for the environment -- particularly, but not necessarily just in terms of methane production?

(No answers beginning "I'd guess..." or "It seems logical that..." please. I'm already 95% sure the league-table will go red meat > poultry > fish. I need facts and numbers to back that up.)

Sewer gas smell in the basement?

nj_subgenius — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:13:50 -0800

SewerGasFilter. Help![+] This morning I detected the stink of sewer gas in my basement for the first time. My plumbing is clean, hasn't ever been worked on (at least in five yrs since I have lived here). Anybody, advice? I've looked for a cheap gas detector but Google-fu fails. I don't want to call the FD or a plumber if this is a transient problem. I'm in NJ where there's been some cold weather. Thanks in advance.