• Termites produce more Carbon Dioxide (CO2) each year than all living things combined.
• Termites alone produce ten times as much carbon dioxide as all the fossil fuels burned in the whole world in a year.
• Pound for pound, the weight of all the termites in the world is greater than the total weight of humans.
• Worldwide, termites may release over 150 million tons of methane gas into the atmosphere annually. In our lower atmosphere this methane then reacts to form carbon dioxide and ozone.
• For every human on Earth there may be 1000 pounds of termites.
• On the average Termites expel gas composed of about 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, 7% methane, and 4% oxygen.
• There are 2,600 different species of termites, and it is estimated that there are at least a million billion individual termites on Earth, that they emit two and four percent of the global carbon dioxide and methane budget, respectively-both mediated directly or indirectly by their microbes.
• The Science magazine reports that termites annually generate more than twice as much carbon dioxide as mankind does burning fossil fuels. One termite species annually emits 600,000 metric tons of formic acid into the atmosphere, an amount equal to the combined contributions of automobiles, refuse combustion and vegetation.
* The most socially destructive and dangerous termites (white ants), occupy many of the seats in Western Parliaments. Should many of them achieve their ambitions they may well bring about the collapse of Western civilisation.
8 comments:
I just knew there was a better reason for global warming than the BS we have been fed so far !
.....and your point is?
Anonymous asks what the point is when it is clear: the whole campaign to reduce the human influence on climate is complete and utter madness. Humans couldn't influence the climate even if we wanted to. It is all a part of a natural cycle that is far bigger than we are. We would be better to use all of that money that is being wasted on global warming for the proper advancement of mankind.
Oh I see THAT'S the point - the advancement of mankind. With all due respect, that's quite a Neanderthal perspective on the way of the world in 2010 isn't it? It would seem an extension of your position that all else that exists on and around earth; the birds, the fish, the animals and plants and the atmosphere, water and earth they coexist in are all there for the benefit of mankind then. Gee. we've really looked after them well so far haven't we!
Anonymous @10:53
You obviously have some strong views about life in general, no disrespect intended but look how well we have looked after Termites. Doesn't that count for something?
Mr Kitching, do you mean in the first bullet point that termites produce more CO2 than all OTHER living things combined?
Termites have been doing this for millennia, and thus the natural balance has been more less achieved, while the burning with gusto of fossil fuels is over, say, the last 200 years if that. One could argue a re-balance is yet to be achieved, with or without humans but certainly probably with termites.
termite infestation cases have dramatically increased. Damages and repairs brought about by these little “white ants” could reach billions of dollars each year.
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