Wednesday, June 11, 2008

cow farts

I wanted to share this story about scientists trying to isolate the 'cow fart gene' in order to manipulate it and 'provide vaccination against agricultural flatulence'. I'm not sure if I know what to think.



On one hand, cows are cows and they fart. The end. It's natural and part of their existence and farmers have dealt with this for centuries. On the other hand, there are the cold hard facts about the amount of GHG-equivalent-methane that is released into the air when a cow passes gas. In reality, I believe that that humans are playing God here and are blaming our problems on everyone but themselves.

The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is at a level where we are indeed seeing dramatic shifts in our communities, our countries, the world. Flash floods in the mid-West, rogue tornadoes in Ontario and even the amount of smog that lingers in the English Bay in Vancouver are all examples of evidence that the times, they are a changing. So, instead of making the appropriate shifts needed in our lifestyles, it is easier to manipulate a gene in a cow and change their existence rather than buck up and change our lifestyles.

Scientists have gone too far. I fart in their general direction.

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