Bits and Bites from Around the World > Denmark - First country to tax cow farts; Chinese robot with human stem cells in brain

 

Denmark the world’s first country to tax farting cows

Shaun Polczer

Published on: 

26 Jun 2024, 10:14 am

Denmark will be the first country to tax livestock emissionsPhoto Illustration generated by Meta AI

To err is human; to moo bovine.

Denmark will become the first country in the world to begin taxing farmers for Methane emissions from livestock starting in 2030.

Lawmakers agreed Monday to impose a tax of 120 kroner ($25) per tonne of greenhouse gas emitted from livestock, a level that will climb to about $50 by 2035.

The revenues will be pooled into a fund aimed to support the livestock industry’s so-called ‘green transition’.

“We are writing a new chapter in Danish agricultural history,” said farm minister, Jacob Jensen.

Farmer’s protest Files

Added Nicolai Wammen, Denmark’s finance minister: “We know that a CO2 tax model aligned across all sectors gives us the lowest societal costs in total. What we have now done, from industry sectors to agriculture, shows us that an ambitious green transition is possible.”

Denmark is one of Europe’s largest pork producers and a significant producer of beef and dairy as well. According to government statistics, it is home to about 1.5 million cows.

Ruminant animals such as sheep and cattle release methane when digesting food, which about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Some estimates suggest agriculture is responsible for a third of GHG emissions, half which come from animals.

Global livestock emissions 1990-2020Statista

Emissions by livestock sourceResearch Gate

Cows are by far the biggest culprits, producing about 6 tonnes per year.

But EU lawmakers are taking a huge risk; just last week, New Zealand scrapped plans to tax its agricultural emissions after stiff resistance from farmers.

In the EU, farmers have staged massive and often violent protests that have brought traffic to a standstill and sprayed manure in European capitals this year over proposed environmental policies as part of its so-called ‘Green Deal’.

On Monday EU lawmakers in Luxembourg passed a ‘Nature Restoration Law’ — by a slim 1% majority —which aims to restore as much as a third of arable farm land back to a natural state.

Dutch farm group LTO, one of the country’s largest, on Wednesday issued a statement that said they were “concerned and indignant” over the act. It’s significant because the Dutch farmer’s party BBB gained seats for the first time in last week’s EU elections.

Livestock emissions by countryAmerican geophysical Union

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Chinese scientists create robot with brain

made from human stem cells

• 
  
• Researchers have developed brain-on-chip technology to train the robot to perform tasks such as gripping objects
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Victoria Bela

Published: 3:00pm, 29 Jun 2024

The robots have an artificial brain as well as a neural chip. Photo: Tianjin University

Chinese scientists have developed a robot with a lab-grown artificial brain that can be taught to perform various tasks.

The brain-on-chip technology developed by researchers at Tianjin University and the Southern University of Science and Technology combines a brain organoid – a tissue derived from human stem cells – with a neural interface chip to power the robot and teach it to avoid obstacles and grip objects.

The technology is an emerging branch of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), which aims to combine the brain’s electrical signals with external computing power and which China has made a priority.

It is “the world’s first open-source brain-on-chip intelligent complex information interaction system” and could lead to the development of brain-like computing, according to Tianjin University.

“[This] is a technology that uses an in-vitro cultured ‘brain’ – such as brain organoids – coupled with an electrode chip to form a brain-on-chip,” which encodes and decodes stimulation feedback, Ming Dong, vice-president of Tianjin University, told state-owned Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday.

BCI technology has gained widespread attention due to the Elon Musk-backed Neuralink, an implantable interface designed to let patients control devices with only their thoughts.

Tianjin University now says its research could lead to the development of hybrid human-robot intelligence.

Brain organoids are made from human pluripotent stem cells typically only found in early embryos that can develop into different kinds of tissues, including neural tissues.

When grafted into the brain, they can establish functional connections with the host brain, the Tianjin University team wrote in an unedited manuscript published in the peer-reviewed Oxford University Press journal Brain last month.

“The transplant of human brain organoids into living brains is a novel method for advancing organoid development and function. Organoid grafts have a host-derived functional vasculature system and exhibit advanced maturation,” the team wrote.

Li Xiaohong, a professor at Tianjin University, told Science and Technology Daily that while brain organoids were regarded as the most promising model of basic intelligence, the technology still faced “bottlenecks such as low developmental maturity and insufficient nutrient supply”.

In the paper, the team said it had developed a technique to use low-intensity ultrasound, which could help organoids better integrate and grow within the brain.

The team found that when grafts were treated with low-intensity ultrasound, it improved the differentiation of organoid cells into neurons and helped improve the networks it formed with the host brain.

The technique could also lead to new treatments to treat neurodevelopmental disorders and repair damage to the cerebral cortex, the paper said.

“Brain organoid transplants are considered a promising strategy for restoring brain function by replacing lost neurons and reconstructing neural circuits,” the team wrote.

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Doomsday Prophecies of Ancient Methane Being Released as Temperatures Rise are WRONG, say Scientists

Another bit of climate hysteria demolished by real scientists

FIle photo: © Augustin/Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environment (LGGE)/Handout

The climate change movement has long warned that, as global temperatures rise, we run the risk of releasing vast reserves of trapped methane into the atmosphere and bringing about the end of days. New research says: probably not.

Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York studied methane emissions from a period in Earth's history which bears many similarities to our current climate, examining ice cores taken from the last period of deglaciation some 8,000 to 15,000 years ago.

By closely examining air samples extracted from these frozen ice cores, the researchers found that even if the methane in these vast stores is released, it won't actually reach our atmosphere. 

“Our data shows we don't need to be as concerned about large methane releases from large carbon reservoirs in response to future warming,” said Vasily Petrenko, a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Rochester. “We should be more concerned about methane released from human activities." 

When carbon-based life (plants and animals) decays, the remains freeze and the carbon contained within becomes trapped in the permafrost seen across regions including vast swathes of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada.

Later, when the water in this permafrost melts, the soil becomes waterlogged and creates the ideal breeding ground for microbes that consume the newly-thawed carbon and produce methane. 

Meanwhile, in the oceans, methane hydrates – formed under immense pressures at low temperatures – are found in sediments on the ocean floor along the subaquatic borders of the continents. If ocean temperatures rise, the current theory goes, these hydrates will destabilize and release the methane gas into the atmosphere, wreaking havoc around the globe. 

The team took ice core samples from the Earth's past to see just how much methane from these ancient deposits is actually released during periods of warming, and found that the actual amount of emissions from ancient carbon reservoirs was quite small. 

“The likelihood of these old carbon reservoirs destabilizing and creating a large positive warming feedback in the present day is also low,” said Michael Dionysus, a graduate student involved in the research.

Instead, the researchers argue that numerous natural 'buffers' actually prevent the majority of the carbon from reaching the atmosphere. 

In the case of methane hydrates, most of the greenhouse gas is dissolved and oxidized by microbes in the oceans long before it makes it to the surface. The same goes for deeper deposits of methane in permafrost, which the researchers believe are consumed by bacteria in the soil and turned into carbon dioxide. 

Methane is believed to be a far more powerful GHG than CO2, by those who believe CO2 is a GHG.

Dutch Farmer's Backlash Against Climate Change Alarmism

Dutch farmers clog highways in protest at politicians labeling them

climate change problem

© AFP / ANP / Vincent Jannink

Dutch farmers blocked hundreds of miles of major roads with their tractors to protest what they say are attempts to scapegoat their industry and paint them as a “problem” that needs fixing in discussions over climate change.

Up to 10,000 farmers took to the highways in their tractors on Monday to slowly make their way to The Hague causing 620 miles (998km) of traffic jams and the worst morning commute in the country’s history.

Some farmers managed to avoid the traffic by driving along the North Sea beaches to reach the city. 

In a statement, police said they “respect that farmers are standing up for their interest” and that they were trying to facilitate the protest as well as they could, but urged tractor drivers to follow instructions of traffic guides on the routes.

No official measures against farmers have yet been announced, but one party has suggested that the Netherlands should cut back 50 percent on the number of live animals produced every year. A broad package of measures includes a proposal to grant financial aid to farmers who want to cease their operations or adopt greener practices, the Associated Press reported.

“Farmers and growers are sick of being painted as a ‘problem’ that needs a ‘solution,’” Dirk Bruins of industry group LTO said in a statement.

“This is about our families, our future, the future of our children. It’s about our way of life,” sheep farmer Bart Kemp told the crowds of farmers gathered in The Hague and called for a “new era in which the food producers of the Netherlands are listened to.”

The farmers’ protest also comes after a court found the country is in violation of EU emissions rules — and the dispute highlights the dilemma faced by governments eager to pass popular eco-friendly laws and reduce emissions while trying to mitigate the negative effects on those who earn their livelihoods in the biggest emissions-producing industries.

Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said she was ready to listen to farmers’ concerns and assured them that the country was working toward “a strong agricultural sector with an eye on a healthy environment.”

Police said they detained two demonstrators — one who drove through a metal fence and another who attempted to interfere with the detention.

Agricultural animals are a factor in the global warming debate, perhaps a bigger factor than fossil fuels, producing methane gas that may actually contribute to warming. This, however, can be mitigated significantly by an adjustment in diet. 

While thousands of people are starving to death, this is not the time to cut food production.

Scientist Discovers Particular Seaweed Reduces Methane to Nearly Zero in Cow Gas

P.E.I. Farmer Assists in Near-Eradication of Methane from Cow Farts

By Shane Ross, CBC News

    Rob Kinley with cattle in Australia. Methane from cows' farts and burps is a major source of 
    greenhouse gas emissions, he says. (CSIRO Agriculture )

A Prince Edward Island farmer has helped lead to a researcher's discovery of an unlikely weapon in the battle against global warming: a seaweed that nearly eliminates the destructive methane content of cow burps and farts.

Joe Dorgan began feeding his cattle seaweed from nearby beaches more than a decade ago as a way to cut costs on his farm in Seacow Pond. He was so impressed with the improvements he saw in his herd, he decided to turn the seaweed into a product.

"There's a mixture of Irish moss, rockweed and kelp, and just going to waste," he said. "And I knew it was good because years ago, our ancestors, that's what they done their business with."

Then researcher Rob Kinley caught wind of it.


These lasers are used to measure the amount of methane released in the field. (CSIRO Agriculture)

The agricultural scientist, then at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, helped test Dorgan's seaweed mix, and discovered it reduced the methane in the cows' burps and farts by about 20 per cent.

Kinley knew he was on to something, so he did further testing with 30 to 40 other seaweeds. That led him to a red seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis he says reduces methane in cows burps and farts to almost nothing.

'Agriculture stands to be one of the first to make major

changes in the greenhouse gas inventory and so it's really

a game changer if we can get this out into the market.'

– Rob Kinley

"I was testing one day a series of samples when all of a sudden it looked like my instruments were having problems, and I wasn't able to see emissions from one particular sample," he said. "So I did it over and over again and lo and behold the methane emissions were eliminated.

"That's when the light went on."

The discovery, Kinley said, could be a "game changer" when it comes to global warming.


Rob Kinley tested different types of seaweed to use to feed cattle. (Ocean Harvest)

"Ruminant animals are responsible for roughly 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, so it's not a small number," said Kinley, an agricultural research scientist now working at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Queensland, Australia.

"We're talking numbers equivalent to

hundreds of millions of cars."

Kinley thinks it could take anywhere from three to five years to get a commercial animal feed to market. He says the biggest challenge will be growing enough seaweed.

"Agriculture stands to be one of the first to make major changes in the greenhouse gas inventory and so it's really a game changer if we can get this out into the market."

As I have been saying, technology will significantly reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. There is no need for the near-hysteria about global warming that has swept the world in the past few years.