Tony Bryer wrote:
On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:21:28 GMT Raden wrote :
I wonder if there are any figures relating to how human flatulence
contributes to global warming

.... and hence how bad a vegetarian diet might be for the planet

It doesn't affect it since what is being released is what was taken
in from the atmosphere a short while ago - unlike unlocking the CO2
in buried gas, coal and oil.

I am not entirely convinced raden was being serious :-).

.... but allow me to correct this misunderstanding. The problem with
flatulence (both human and bovine) is that it largely consists of
methane (not CO2). Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than
carbon dioxide (molecule for molecule), so turning lots of atmospheric
carbon from CO2 to methane would be bad news.