JMHO Loc: Utah

Buried deep in the archives of The New York Times is an article about termites. We have a h**e-love relationship with the little creatures. We h**e them because they can turn a house constructed from wood into saw dust without a homeowner ever knowing it.

Watch a show like “Flip or Flop” on HGTV. It seems like Tarek and Christina El Moussa are always buying homes that have extensive termite damage. There's an entire industry dev**ed to k*****g termites and insuring that they don't return to wreck havoc on our homes.

We love them because they turn discarded wood products into compost, enriching the soil. If there were no termites we would be living in a forest of dead trees all around us.

A fundamental law is that nothing is ever destroyed. When termites consume wood and vegetable matter, they turn it into energy, heat, and gaseous byproducts like carbon dioxide and methane – dreaded greenhouse gases.

They are by definition some of the biggest polluters on the planet.

The following is from a 1982 New York Times article “Termite Gas Exceeds Smokestack Pollution”:

“For several years scientists have been warning that carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by increased burning of fuel is likely to alter world climates, like a greenhouse, by inhibiting the escape of heat into outer space.

“Now researchers report that termites, digesting vegetable matter on a global basis, produce more than twice as much carbon dioxide as all the world's smokestacks.

“Termite gas production has become particularly high, the researchers say, because widespread clearing of land has offered them abundant food in the debris of felled forests. By digesting this debris, they are adding not only carbon dioxide but also methane to the atmosphere. Other researchers have found that methane in the atmosphere is increasing 2 percent a year.

“The high level of termite gas production is reported in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal Science. The authors measured termite gas production inside laboratory jars. In Guatemala forests, they enclosed a huge arboreal termite nest in a Teflon bag to confirm that the insects were prolific producers of methane.”

Termite “polluters” are only one source of such gases. Every living creature emits carbon dioxide and methane — even humans. Then there are the cows that are constantly belching and passing gas.

Some cows are now wearing back packs — "fartpacks" — to capture their emissions.

Let’s not forget volcanoes.

“Another author of the report, Patrick R. Zimmerman of the atmospheric center in Boulder, said that plant respiration and decay added 10 to 15 times as much carbon dioxide to the air as termites.”

Let’s not let the EPA find this 32-year article. It might get them thinking on how much more they can regulate our world into oblivion.

Read more at http://godfatherpolitics.com/19337/termites-emit-greenhouse-gases-coal-plants/#GbeeKSTjEi9BeWGm.99

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

Good Post and I bet you got a lump of coal the tree huggers in your stocking hung on the mantel didn't ya !

I still can't get how people keep harping on g****l w*****g or c*****e c****e get off at ! O WELL

Forkbassman Loc: Missouri

Don't tell PETA all this info!

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

That pesky Mother Nature better find some liberal termites. Hold it. What am I saying. They destroy perfectly good structures and are full of gas. Sounds just like a liberal.

jeff smith

I think that all of this is just a political way of some day they can enact a new tax to robe everyone of more money to keep the working person even poorer. it's all bulls**t propaganda.

Airforceone

Take your foolish article and put it where the sun don't shine. I can't understand the foolishness of the right Termites my that just the i***tic way the right thinks

Here is your termites


Here's some more Termites


No termites here

Cherokee38 Loc: Atlanta

Dear brain: This is not opinion like yours but facts. Why can't libs see what is right in front of them?? Remember chicken little?? That was probably the first true liberal!!!

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

In the coal pic these one stack that hasn't anything coming out of it the others are cooling towers and that is steam coming out of them !
Better do some more research tds

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

Give him a break he just passed coloring book.

Pulfnick Loc: Knoxville, TN

I notice all the dead birds k**led by those ugly windmills were deleted in your photo.

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

Somebody's probably burning the birds to keep warm.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

The termite mounds in South America and Africa are green house gas producers. I knew that from High school science. Coal can be used very efficiently with modern technology. that is a fact also. Should the government subsidize the coal industry to keep it working? We did it with the railroads and the Oil industry. So should Coal companies and power plants get big money from the government to subsidize their operations? that is my question.

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

Only if the termites do.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

The turd has been informed of that by at least a dozen people, but that would just get in the way of his moronic posts, so why should he let facts get in his way?