Belching Bovines

I just learned something today from an Article from National Geographic which completely stunned me and I felt compelled to tell someone.  So after texting my 14 year old brother and telling him, because that is the type of strange but interesting sister I am, I thought I'd come on here and tell you lot.  And yes, I may be 35 and rushing to my phone to share my strange readings of the day to my very much younger 14 year old brother.....but he has a brain like mine therefore very much understands me and my odd thinkings.

Did you know.....(now this might come as a bit of a shock, so brace yourself for this information) that 26% of the United States total Methane Emissions comes from.....wait for it..........COW BURPS!!  Yes, you read that correctly.  The smelly, methaney burps of our Bovine brethren is highly contributing to methane emissions in the USA.

This has become such a concern that Scientists are actually working on a special type of drug that can be mixed with the cow feed that will help curb the burpy bovine's belchy stench.  It's strange to think of scientists running around a field, chasing cows and trying to attach a harnesses to them that would monitor said cows burps.  I can just see them all now, crowded into the corner of a farmers field with their wellie boots and white lab coats, arms outstretched holding the "harnesses" and nervously saying "Here Bessy, Bessy, Bessy.  Come get your harness on."  The cows.....well, they are just all standing around like they normally do, nonchalantly chewing grass and burping (obviously) and randomly looking up with a sense of boredom at the crowd of cornered Scientists holding strange burp monitoring harnesses.  It's all very strange really.

And just think, millions of years from now the earth may not even be habitable for humans to live on anyway, regardless of Methane Emission and Environmental factors that we think are important now.   And that's if we as a species even get to exist into the multi-millions of years anyway.  We are youngsters in the grand scheme of things.  Why aren't we putting more money into Space Exploration, someone please tell me??  I tell you what, if my Great, Great, Great Grand nieces and nephews (times a few more Great's onto that) are anything like me........they'll be wondering why we didn't stick more funds into Space Exploration too.  They'll be laughing (or crying!) and calling us the naive idiots just as we laughed at the thought of early man banging rocks together and making flint tools to splash about like eejits in the water trying to stab fish for their dinner.  If we are lucky to span millions of years old as a species but things end up going tits up for us here on Earth either because of war, over crowding, famine, disease, environmental factors, our Sun goes kaput or a great big meteor comes down and flattens us all (where were you and your big drilling rig when we needed you Bruce Willis??)....well, we are going to have to find somewhere for us to go if we don't want to be a footnote in history.  And if this rock that we squat on isn't going to be habitable for many future generations anyway, does it really matter if the cows highly methane emitting belches are that bad?

I suppose as the intelligent race and essentially custodians of Earth, we have a duty of care and we must make the best of what we have right now and attempt to make the world we live in a comfortable place for as many future generations as we can.  But as I said, we are youngsters in Earth's timeline.  And there is nothing that says as a species we will last forever.  Look at the people of Easter Island.  They essentially wiped themselves out and it all started because they knocked down the last remaining tree on their Island.  They decimated the Island that they lived on of its natural resources which inevitably lead to their demise.  Just because we are a highly intelligent race, doesn't mean we actually "own" the planet we sit on or have a right to be here either.  We are merely renting space here.  So is it a case of preserving what we have now and do our best for the planet, for as long as we can for future generations?  Or do we just throw our hands up in the air, and say "To hell with it", do what we want, when we want because as a species, we are no different from any other life form, virus, plant or bacteria on this planet and could go extinct, just like that?  I personally think environmental issues are very real......but only to us human beings.  I think it is difficult to make plans and think we can save the planet for future generations beyond say, 100 years ahead because we actually don't know what is around the corner for us as a species or in what state our planet will be in then.  I'm not saying that we should therefore tear down every last tree and eat the last fish in the sea because we might not make it passed 100 years anyway so what is the point?  That is not what I am saying.  But, I also believe at the end of the day, Earth will essentially look after itself as it has always done, before we were here and most likely way after we are gone, whether we try to save the trees or stop polluting our oceans or switch to natural resources to heat our homes.  Really, the issues we have with the environment and finding better, cleaner, cheaper and healthier resources to power our lives is all about making our lives and existence more comfortable and pleasurable.  Earth?  Well, this planet quite frankly doesn't give a damn whether we live for the next one million years or go extinct after 100 years. This wee planet will still go about its business, doing its own thing as its always done, whether that means its a world full of volatile volcanic landscapes with seas of lava or a lush green and blue oasis filled with human beings.  We weren't always the "Blue Planet" you know.  Because we as a species, as much as we like to think we are in control, actually we are not.  We can help ourselves by not over fishing the seas or stop contributing to the Ozone layer slowly disappearing.  But these are all things we do to make our existence a little more bearable for now and the near future.  This planet will carry on in its little cycle of whatever it's bound for whether we are here or not.   And honestly, there is nothing we can do about that.  We are not in control as much as we like to think we are.  And let's face it, if history has taught us anything, its that it tends to repeat and well all I'm saying is.......have you seen any dinosaurs around lately? lol.  And just think how much they'd be contributing to methane emissions with their dino sized burps!!  Maybe it's a good thing that they went extinct because I wouldn't want to be the one trying to put a Methane Emissions Reader harness on a T-Rex!

Right, I'm away out to my back garden to start working on my space ship for exploring the stars in order to find a new home to settle on.  I'm nearly sure Blue Peter said I could make one out of a toilet roll tube, some tin foil and duct tape.

I do realise that this post is undeniably random and strange.....but I did warn you that this might happen on this blog.  This is how my mind works.  Welcome to my brain people!  You're Welcome!

Lee :)