Scientists Rail Against Senator Who Belittled Research …

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/scientists-rail-senator-belittled-research/story?id=12459570

Scientists Rail Against Senator Who Belittled Research

Researchers Say Federal Funds Went to Project More Important Than Just 'Cow Burps.'

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Dec. 23, 2010

A team of scientists who study pollution's role in global warming are outraged at a GOP Senator who, they say, has maligned their work as wasteful and petty by describing it as a study of "cow burps."

…

Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Okla., released on Monday his annual "Wastebook" report, a look at 100 projects that received federal funding which, he says, contributed to record deficits in the past year.

Among those projects was a $700,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture to a team of environmental scientists at the University of New Hampshire to study greenhouse gas emissions – the chemicals associated with global warming – in the dairy industry.

…

"Federal Study Investigates Cow Burps" is how the research is described in the "Wastebook," but Aber said it's a far more sophisticated look at how different toxic chemicals, particularly nitrogen, produced by dairy farming can be mitigated to reduce greenhouse gases.

…

[Creative]

1. I don't have much use for Coburn, but why do they need fedgov money to conduct their research?

Besides that, we already know that dairy farming produces nitrogen and my own research tells me that it is very good for tomato plants.

We can't afford to borrow $700,000 from the Chinese to learn what we already know.

[Wilms]

2. And what do you know?

Read this and get back to us.

http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2010/oct/ds28dairy.cfm

[Creative]

3. I know enough to be able to identify cow manure when I see it.

[hatrack]

4. Watch a lot of Larry the Cable Guy, do you?

nt

[wtmusic]

6. Livestock is more responsible for global warming than transportation is

18% vs. 12%.

Methane is 23x as potent a greenhouse gas as is CO2. No cow manure.

[joshcryer]

7. Methane levels are 1.75 ppm.

Not sure how your comparison is working? Livestock methane vs transportion CO2 emissions? Do you have a cite for that? Transportation makes up roughly a third of all emissions.

[wtmusic]

9. "Livestock's Long Shadow" (UN Report)

"Atmosphere and Climate

With rising temperatures, rising sea levels, melting icecaps and glaciers, shifting ocean currents and weather patterns, climate change is the most serious challenge facing the human race.

The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO₂ equivalent. This is a higher share than transport."

ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0701e/a0701e.pdf

[joshcryer]

10. Thanks.

[joshcryer]

8. Here's an excellent breakdown:

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas">percentages are by greenhouse gas potential

[kestrel91316]

11. "....why do they need fedgov money to conduct their research?...."

Um, because private corporations only fund research that helps in some way to improve their bottom line.

So-called "pure" scientific research is the fount of most useful knowledge in today's world. And those dollars come from the tax money I gladly pay so that our knowledge base grows greater and more trustworthy every year.

Betcha you don't see the need for publically funded universities, either, huh?

[Ilsa]

5. Perhaps a "Wastebook" of money wasted on useless senators is in order.

Cob urn makes my list, along with any of them that threatened filibuster to hold up obviously popular bills.