Are Kangaroos the Solution to Cow Farts?

In breaking news from Australia today (no pun intended), scientist are working on a viable solution to the methane emissions from cows and sheep. In recent years cows have be one of those blamed for Global Warming. And in 1989 a New Scientist article accused cows of being responsible for 100m tonnes of methane released into the atmostphere annually. Methane like carbon dioxide, traps infrared radiation that would otherwise escape into space. Indeed, molecule for molecule, it traps 25 times as much of the Sun's heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Hence the concern about the methane in the farts of cattle, whose world population has doubled in the past 40 years. There is roughly one head of cattle for every four human beings.

"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep, and if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 percent"
Athol Klieve, Senior Research Scientist, Queensland State Government

Kangaroo flatulence contains no methane, thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas. In addition to the environmental benefits, if successful the scientists believe that the new efficient digestive system would reduce the food intake of the livestock. Reducing feed costs for farmers.

Scientist believe it will take at least three years to isolate the bacteria that gives kangaroos green farts, whilst others believe we should simply move to eating more kangaroos. It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.

How Big is Santa's Carbon Footprint?

Santa may have one of the biggest carbon footprints of an individual, anywhere in the world, even greater than of Al Gore, that most critics continue to ramble on about, but just how big is Santa's carbon footprint?

Santa in recent years has seen his workload increase as Christmas is seen as holiday by not just Christians but by people of all faiths around the world. Whilst no exact figures are available, and Santa has not published any to date, according to UNICEF there are 2.2 billion children in the world. For this we will assume Santa will deliver to all children, since none have made it on to the naughty list this year.

Using UK National Statistics, the average household in the UK has 1.8 children, unfortunately we do not have an international average. So Santa would need to visit roughly 1.22 billion homes. Assuming Santa travels east to west, which would be the most logical route thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the Earth, he has 48 hours to work with. Anders Larsson of the engineering consultancy Sweco, estimated that the average people per sq km on Earth is 48, and 20m between each home. Using these figures, Santa would need to travel a total distance of 24.4m km, or 141.46km per second, not including the fact he has stop the sleigh, get out, go down the chimney and deliver the presents, avoiding fires and chimney balloons, that may obstruct his path, then return to the sleigh and continue delivering presents. And visit 7073 homes a second, or 1.4 millisecond per visit.

In terms of Co2 emissions these will be greatly increased by the continued starting and stopping of the sleigh in addition to that with the extraordinary speeds at which the sleigh will be travelling. If we were to consider that the sleigh was being powered by a jet engine as touted in the film "Elf", namely a cringle 3000, whilst no vehicle can travel at that speed we will try to calculate the equivalent jet engine requirements. Before we do this we need to calculate the weight of Santa's sleigh load, all those toys in the sleigh. If each child was given only a Sony PS3 for Christmas, since not even Santa can get hold of Nintendo Wii's, at 7kg each, Santa would be pulling an average load during the journey of 4.3m tonnes. This is of course assuming that people all live evenly around the world with 20m between homes, and of course Santa hasn't died from exertion, or even slowed down, even a little.

Assuming Santa's sleigh fuel consumption was similar to that of a 747-400, taking the payload into consideration (9772 times more than a 747), the fuel consumption per km would be 116 000 litres per km. Note we have not taken into account that Santa is carrying the fuel in these assumptions, adding further weight to the sleigh, unless of course he stops off at some mega huge filling station, which he would need to do, or else he would need to carry over 2.8 billion litres of fuel, just for the presents alone, adding to his payload. So Santa now stops off at a filling station each km. To ensure he makes each km, he would need at least 60% extra fuel due to the starting and stopping which would increase his fuel consumption, or 185 600 litres per km.

Since Santa's sleigh is using a 747-400 engine technology, he is using kerosene, which emits 2.58kg of CO2 per litre. Meaning Santa's sleigh emits at least 478t of CO2 per km, or over the entire journey 11.683 billion tonnes of CO2 (42.88% of global CO2 emissions).

Naughty Santa.

Ethical Christmas Gifts

If your still pondering what to buy your friends, mother, brother, auntie, granny or colleague for Christmas but fear you will be amongst the £2.3 billion spent on unwanted Christmas gifts or the three-quarters of us who spend £50 on tat, you could spare a thought for those less fortunate and give two gifts in one, or three;

• A real gift for someone or community in a developing country
• This gift can be given as a gift to your friends or family
• The gift of not having to find a space for the initial gift to gather dust (38.7% of unwanted presents meet this end) or touted on eBay (27.5%)

Many charities including World Vision and Oxfam have launched this year their alternative Christmas gift shops, and by asking communities what they want, they really hope to not just help people but improve the lives of many people for the future to come. Asking an 11-year old child what they want for Christmas would most likely end with a discussion about a Nintendo Wii, in short supply and in demand at £180, ask a child in Bolivia, it might be a birth certificate (£6), or in Sri Lanka, might be 20 chicks (£14).

But for the price of our tat this Christmas, £50 could be spent providing almost 300 meals for for children in a drop-in centre in Battambang City, Cambodia, which enables working children to return to school or attend vocational training. Almost half of all children living here in the second largest city in Cambodia work to help support their families. They may have to collect rubbish to sell, work in brick factories or even go begging. While there, they can get a medical check-up, visit the library or take part in sports activities. If they want to return to school, staff can help them to do so, or advise them about vocational training. A meal really could be the first step towards a new life for these vulnerable children, and it may also be the only proper meal they eat all day.

Whilst World Vision pledge each gift you buy will go towards the scheme involved, however if a gift is oversubscribed funds may be allocated to a different project to ensure that funds are used where appropriate and needed most. Oxfam also suggest that gifts are symbolic and funds are used where appropriate to ensure maximum value for donations. In a small way I feel cheated, that funds from buying 20 chicks may actually buy a goat. Imagine if you asked Santa for 20 chicks but got a goat, you'd be pretty disappointed, not to mention you can't even sell goats on eBay. In reality, each gift was requested by the communities so no matter where the money goes it will benefit the community as a whole, giving chickens to every person in town would do little if no good to a community, in a similar way to giving them all cows or goats.

So if your thinking what to get someone, and feel it may become a tatty mistake, or are really busy and short for time, these gifts provide a one-stop shop for Christmas buying. You don't even have to leave the office to fight amongst 500 other people to end up with another lamp with incandescent bulb that doesn't fit in with their decor.

All in all a feel good Christmas gift. Remember however goats are for life, not just for Christmas. And don't try to do a DIY version by sending 20 chicks Air Mail via Royal Mail to Sri Lanka, the postage is too high, and Royal Mail don't accept chicks, and of course it's just wrong.

Don't forget if you are a UK tax payer you can Gift Aid your gift, so that means you can give an extra 5.6 chicks, 0.28 of a goat or 19.6 meals. As a way of offloading some of this blogs revenue we have fed 345 children, and 7 families.

Picture: Bali Reforestation Protest

Balinese men dressed as the Hindu monkey god Hanuman from the epic Ramayana, take a break during a reforestation campaign near the venue of the UN Climate Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia