By EE Staffers
Environmental writer Don Corrigan recently appeared on the podcast, “Best Part Of The Book,” hosted by Mark Perzel. Veteran broadcaster Perzel keeps the interview lively and fun, but it occasionally veers into serious environmental territory.
For example, Perzel asks about increasing concerns over the cattle industry’s growth worldwide – and the resulting hikes in methane, a gas that contributes to climate change. The methane comes from cattle flatulence.
As weird as it sounds, “farts” are indeed a source of global warming. When cows fart, they release CH4 into the atmosphere. In America, about 20% of the methane emitted in the country comes directly from cows.
Although methane isn’t the number one cause of global warming, in the aggregate, it’s a serious contributor. It’s also a source of emissions that could be addressed easily with science and technology.
Here’s a link to the podcast; it’s a real gem: https://link.chtbl.com/BestPartOfTheBook
Corrigan’s book, I Fart In Your General Direction: Flatulence in Popular Culture, covers environmental issues like cow farting. It also covers methane created eons ago, but which is now being released because of global warming.
Some of the earliest life on the planet consisted of single-celled microbes These organisms lived on a diet of decaying flora and fauna that sinks to the bottom of the oceans.
After consuming this primitive diet, the microbes produce methane expulsions not unlike those of more complex, multi-celled creatures inhabiting the land masses above. These expulsions can accurately be called “micro-farts.”
Micro-farts are relatively harmless when inert and in isolation. However, put trillions of micro-farts together, release them en masse in quick succession, and there can be major problems.
Scientists assure us that all these micro-farts are relatively safe when they combine with icy cold water in dark depths and then stay put in the form a frozen methane hydrate.
However, if these hydrates were to break free and surface all at once, our planet would be hit with unfathomable destruction with almost certain extinction of most life forms.
The world would be consumed by the release of a giant, microbiological fart – a methane bomb. To paraphrase the famous poem by Robert Frost, “Some say the world will end in fire or ice, some say in methane.”
Broadcaster Perzel’s podcast with Corrigan takes an interview approach that involves an ask-and-long-answer formula. The host has read the book prior to the interview and has specific questions on subject matter.
In the case of Corrigan’s book, I Fart In Your General Direction: Flatulence in Popular Culture, the Perzel approach breaks the comedy sound barrier. Make sure your funny bone is braced for a workout.
Once again, the podcast link is: https://link.chtbl.com/BestPartOfTheBook
(Don Corrigan’s Flatulence Exposé is now available at Amazon Books or at McFarlandBooks.com. To order signed books at a discount, or to schedule a book discussion event, send details of your request with a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Don Corrigan; P.O. Box #6, Fenton, Mo. 63026. Or find the author using Contact Info. at EnvironmentalEcho.com.)
Environmental Echo 