“Cattle farmers often dispose of cow dung by allowing it to decompose in large open-air ponds, a process that generates significant methane emissions. Scientists in New Zealand have discovered a potential solution: adding polyferric sulfate, a common wastewater treatment chemical, to the ponds cuts methane emissions by more than 90 percent by disrupting the food supply of methane-producing,” reports The Doomslayer.
This matters a lot, because methane is a potent greenhouse gas, at least 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and perhaps as much as 80 times more potent.
Bloomberg News adds:
Twice a day at milking parlors all over New Zealand, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, sheds are hosed down to wash away cow dung into large manmade ponds.
In an attempt to recycle the water in the lagoons, two local scientists — Keith Cameron and Hong Di — began testing the addition of polyferric sulfate, a chemical that’s been widely used in wastewater treatment to separate liquids from solids. The process worked, but that didn’t prove to be their most interesting finding.
When the pair of soil and physical sciences professors at Lincoln University ran checks to monitor for any impact on greenhouse gas emissions, they made a startling observation: Methane emissions from the wastewater had decreased by more than 90%….manure accounts for roughly 10% of livestock methane emissions, a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Large industrial farms often collect and store waste in giant sealed tanks known as anaerobic digesters that capture methane. Those digesters can cost millions of dollars, though, and curtailing the pollution on smaller farms has remained challenging. But Cameron and Di may have unwittingly found something that works.
By introducing polyferric sulfate into the lagoons, the scientists tipped the scale in favor of sulfate-reducing microorganisms, allowing them to outcompete methanogens —which generate methane, are plentiful in cow poop and grow considerably in effluent ponds — for food. The result was a sharp drop in a powerful greenhouse gas that farmers have been trying to tame for years.
Robots with artificial intelligence have been spreading on Japanese farms. In the U.S., farming robots now use artificial intelligence to kill 100,000 weeds per hour. Drones with artificial intelligence will make farming easier.
A wasp is saving one of the world’s rarest birds from extinction.
A very healthy coral reef is nestled among offshore oil platforms.
Fish species are rebounding off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.
