Blame the Trees

Well, if this doesn't take the cake. Trees are threatening the planet.

Seems as if scientists have just discovered as reported in the most recent edition of Nature that trees and plants emit methane, probably the most potent greenhouse gas, and not just while they rot in swamps but as an entirely natural side-effect of plant growth that scientists had somehow missed.

According to a study published today, living plants may emit almost a third of the methane entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The result has come as a shock to climate scientists. "This is a genuinely remarkable result," said Richard Betts of the climate change monitoring organisation the Hadley Centre. "It adds an important new piece of understanding of how plants interact with the climate."

This has the opponents of Kyoto crowing and the supporters of Kyoto urging caution about this findings. I just wonder how all the experts in global warming missed this basic fact.

But then I remember how little we know.

Let's not forget that 95% of the matter of the universe is dark matter and scientists don't have a clue as to what dark matter is.