Agmates members Tim Curtin, Viv Forbes and Jeff have argued for ages that plants cannot emit methane gas. Now another piece of global warming junk science (think Hockey stick), no not a computer generated prediction, this was an actual finding has been debunked.
New Research by an Australian- based scientists Ellen Nisbet [pictured] has found that in fact plants do not produce greenhouse methane gas.
These findings destroy a central plank of the climate change theory. The scientific theory that plants produce methane was published in the international science journal Nature three years ago, forcing a rethink of the possible sources of greenhouse gas.
Methane is more than 20 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. It’s main sources include natural gas fields, landfills, cattle, bogs and decaying organic waste.
A 2006 study by German scientist Frank Keppler asserted that tropical rain forests were emitting large amounts of methane.
Dr Nisbet, who was studying at Cambridge University at the time, was sceptical when she saw Dr Keppler’s results.
Evolutionary biologist Nisbet working with 12 scientists, including her father, atmospheric chemist Euan Nisbet, found that plants do not carry the right genes to produce methane, but merely filter the gas when it’s contained in soil and dissolved in water.
“When we grew plants under very controlled conditions we found no, they don’t produce methane. They don’t have the right genes to make methane. We know what the genes are and they’re definitely not there.”
Dr Nisbet lectures in life Sciences at the University of South Australia said the team found that plants absorbed methane dissolved in water and soil, and then secreted it into the air. The research has been published this week in Transactions of the Royal Society in Britian.
(Source: Verity Edwards -The Australian 15th Jan P3 – Not available online)
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Tags: CO2, Ellen Nisbet, Euan Nisbet, Frank Keppler, Global Warming, Methane, Tim Curtin, Viv Forbes
