Cow methane theory is so much hot air

THE call by the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr RK Pachauri, for a reduction in the global consumption of meat signals the final nail in the coffin of scientific reality at the UN.

Not only is his negative propaganda damaging to Ireland’s beef and dairy export sector, the premise that it is necessary for preventing climate change is utterly false.

During the course of bovine husbandry, grains and grasses are cultivated to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and only a fraction of that carbon is released back by the animal in the form of methane.

Cows don’t just generate methane out of nothing. The cow’s digestive system accelerates a process which will occur anyway in the external environment, where carbon is released as plant foliage decays.

The fact that Environment Minister John Gormley would float the idea of reducing the national herd should serve as a rallying call to all rationally minded people to call a halt to proposed carbon taxes, carbon trading and the insidious Kyoto protocol.

Carbon taxes and carbon credits are in fact “economic expansion fines” similar to the milk quota system introduced in the 1980s.

With global carbon trading worth €64 billion in 2007, Kyoto obligations are expected to cost the Irish economy €1bn annually.

The economics are alarming and one could be forgiven for thinking the process is about global governance, not scientific reality.

Advocates of drastic action on climate change hardly ever point out that 95% of the greenhouse effect is from water vapour. The fact is the globe has been cooling since 1998 and there has been a net increase in ice at the polar caps in the last 20 years.

It doesn’t sound true, but more ice formed at the Antartic than was lost at the Artic during the period 1986-2006. See www.nisdc.org

Under no circumstances should the Government introduce carbon taxes in the forthcoming budget. Neither should Ireland sign the forthcoming, Kyoto II protocol.

Courageous leadership from Micheál Martin ended smoking in the workplace. The same leadership is needed to confront climate change propaganda, and let the rest of the world follow.

Ultan Murphy

Hon Sec/PRO

Imokilly Fianna Fáil

Castlemartyr

Co Cork