Though a plethora of news venues recently reported the findings of a John Moores University (Liverpool) study suggesting that dinosaurs’ flatulence and eructations (aka belches) were significant and measurable contributors to ancient global warming, I first ran across the story on the NY Daily News site.
From their article –
…A new study suggests that dinosaurs may have helped keep an already overheated world warmer with their flatulence and burps 200 million years ago.
The research published Monday in Current Biology suggests that large dinosaurs made a significant contribution to the greenhouse effect back then. Study author David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in England estimated that about 570 million tons of methane came from dinosaurs. That’s similar to total atmospheric levels of methane today produced by livestock, farming and industry. Cows alone now produce nearly 100 tons a year of methane.
The study looks at the biggest – and presumably gassiest – dinosaurs, called sauropods. These were the long-necked plant eaters that munched on the top of trees. They were large animals that had food fermenting in their guts for long periods of time because of their giant size, said University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz, who wasn’t part of the study.
Wilkinson said dinosaur gas was just one factor at a time when the world was quite tropical, about 18 degrees warmer than now. But he said some in the media and blogosphere have misinterpreted his study to say it was the main cause of ancient warming. Wilkinson said it was only of the causes, but dinosaur gas “is big enough to be a measurable effect,” he said in a phone interview…
Media pundits of all stripes have had a field day with the study and the implications therein, not the least of which is how in the hell did such a project garner funding to be ‘studied’?
That pondered, it was on my drive to Gig Harbor that I realized the study has profound implications for my fly fishing brethren (and sistren, though probably to a lesser degree).
Many, if not most, fishers with whom I’ve kept company over the years have emitted prodigious volumes of flatulence and motley fumes via eructations.
Much more so than ostensibly otherwise normal humans that I’ve observed over the years.
No doubt their diet of greasy-dive mega-belt-busting cheeseburgers, slim Jims, stale coffee and cheap (we’re thinking of you, PBR) and not-so-cheap beer contributes mightily to these phenomena.
On a positive note noxious fumes emitted by fly fishers may have actually decreased as the utilization of neoprene waders has plummeted over the past decade, though researchers have well documented the continued use of said neoprene by certain fishers (Singlebarbed for one).
For some the mere act of producing these eruptions has been honed with considerable practice and attention to detail not unlike that of a great musician (pitch, tone, volume, vibrato and so on and so forth).
We’ve volunteered to serve as team leaders in a field trial to assess fly fisher emissions over the next year; we feel highly compelled to further this brilliant branch of global warming research.
We’ll probably be awarded a ginormous grant to do so and will be able to retire early and conduct meaningful research for the next several decades. I’m envisioning a staff of comely assistants who can also row a drift boat or fishing raft rig, piles of beverages and food stocks for testing as well as a speaking tour conducted during the coldest Montana winter months to allow year round fishing testing and research.
Volunteers needed.
