Farting Aussie Camels get death sentence in effort to save planet from global warming

"The officials figure removing the feral camels, which toot and burp out carbon, would lead to a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110610/sc_livescience/greenhousegaspainsshootthefartingcamels

If they can get rid of them and get a greenhouse gas credit while doing, good for them.

By the way, we could use a few camels, farts or not, in our county. We have zero right now.

Invasive species are generally very bad for the local environment.

Actually, the U.S. DOES have camels. I've seen them. Just saw some in a wildlife park a couple of weeks ago.

And some U.S. farmers (they likely call themselves "ranchers") raise llamas, the camels' cousins. Of course, llamas are more known for spitting than farting.

nuzzling me. I was like what a sweet llama. Then he spit ALL over my face.

I've always found this bit of our history interesting...

Ali was one of several men brought over by the American Government who were to drive the camels as beasts of burden for transporting cargo across what was then known as the "Great American Desert." Eight of the men, including Ali, were of Greek origins, having arrived at the Port of Indianola in Lavaca County, Texas aboard the USS Supply.<5> The book Go West Greek George by Steven Dean Pastis, published in both Greek and English, specifically identifies all eight men. These pioneers were Yiorgos Caralambo (later known as Greek George),<6> Hadji Ali (Hi Jolly, a.k.a. Philip Tedro), Mimico Teodora (Mico), Hadjiatis Yannaco (Long Tom), Anastasio Coralli (Short Tom), Michelo Georgios, Yanni Iliato, and Giorgios Costi. The Americans acquired 3 camels in Tunis, 9 in Egypt, and 21 in Smyrna, 33 in all. Ali was the lead camel driver during the US Army's experiment with the U.S. Camel Corps in using camels in the dry deserts of the Southwest. After successfully traveling round trip from Texas to California, the experiment went bust, partly due to the problem that the Army's burros, horses, and mules feared the large animals, often panicking, and the tensions of the American Civil War led to Congress not approving more funds for the Corps. In 1864, the camels were finally auctioned off in Benicia, California and Camp Verde, Texas.

After the Camel Corps, Ali attempted to run a freight business between the Colorado River and mining establishments to the east using a few camels he kept. Unfortunately, the business failed and Ali released his camels into the Arizona desert near Gila Bend. He was discharged from the Quartermaster Department of the U.S. Army at Camp McDowell in 1870. In 1880 Ali became an American citizen and used the name Philip Tedro (sometimes spelled Teadrow) when he married Gertrudis Serna in Tucson, Arizona. The couple had two children.<7> In 1885, Ali was rehired by the U.S. Army where he worked as packer under Brig. Gen. George Crook during the Geronimo campaign. In his final years Ali moved to Quartzsite, Arizona where he mined and occasionally scouted for the US government. He died in 1902 and was buried in the Quartzsite Cemetery.

Hi Jolly or Hadji Ali

suffering for man's stupidity.

invasive and destructive species on the planet.

Either we'd rake in billions (BILLIONS, I tell you!), or at least we'd have the free entertainment of watching people explode on the streets from trying to hold one in too long.

Picture Rush Limbaugh exploding in mid-monologue. You will see the wisdom in this approach...

wireless transmitter and then they'd get a tax bill each month!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And we can easily calibrate the Fart-O-Matic to charge on volume. I've got it all written down somewhere.;)

:toast: :rofl:

The take resources from native species driving some of them to extinction.

The native species are the true victims of mans actions.

feral humans are guilty, not camels.

Instead of this cruel and unnecessary "solution"?????

So, killing them is not necessarily "unnecessary," and how it is done determines whether or not it is cruel.

What they emit won't make a dent.

Priceless. :rofl:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo9kJZvYBB0>>


is God pro-fart or anti-fart? well, then again, if God is anti-fart,
why did He create firsts in the fart place?

"The officials figure removing the feral camels, which toot and burp out carbon, would lead to a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions."

Have we lost our minds. Combating climate change has come to slaughtering thousands of camels because they "toot and burp out carbon"? This is laughable. This kind of nonsense is only going to turn the public against the entire attempt to deal with global climate change. It makes the whole effort look like a crazy joke.

I doubt it is going to matter anyway. China and India aren't going to stop growing and will only be massively increasing their use of fossil fuels, people in Western countries aren't going to give a fig about actually doing anything about climate change while their economies suck, and the 3rd world isn't in much of a position do anything anyway. The whole effort is mostly hopeless, and killing a bunch of camels isn't going to put a dent in the problem. We're probably going to just have to learn how to adjust and live with climate change rather than attempt to slow it down or stop it.

The article's a massive pile of bullshit, and it's clearly written by some moron RW type. Tony Abbott and his bunch of climate-change deniers are quick to lie and misrepresent anything they can. The officials mentioned in the OP aren't govt officials, and these conjured up 'officials' seem to be as much of a figment of the writers imagination as what they supposedly 'figure'...

There's no legislation in Australia involving the culling of feral camels, and I hope the OP rethinks the misleading title of this thread and has enough interest in the subject of carbon emissions to read actual information on the carbon farming initiative directly from the source rather than relying on poorly written and clearly biased crap from the media...

Link to the carbon farming initiative

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/carbon-farming-initative.aspx

Information on the public consultation process

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/carbon-farming-initative/outcomes-of-consultation.aspx

Submission from Northwest Carbon

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/submissions/~/media/submissions/cfi/127-northwest-carbon-pty-ltd-and-rangelands-nrm.pdf

:rofl:

As do all plants and all animals. They absorb it as they grow and then emit it all back to the environment when they die, through decomposition. Their "toots" and "burps" during their lifetime are not new generation of carbon. They are the emission of carbon that was already in the environment, in the form of vegetation, which was consumed by the animal. If the animal did not exist and the vegetation had not been consumed by the animal, it would have been consumed by another animal, or it would have decomposed. Either way, it would inevitably be released into the environment.

It is a zero sum game. The amount of carbon in the environment is constant, and the emissions of any animal are offset by the consumption of that animal.

The difference with fossil fuels is that this is carbon that has been sequestered deep in the earth and is not currently part of the ecosystem, until it is drilled for and extracted and burned, thereby releasing that formerly sequestered carbon into the atmosphere.

The irony with this story is that the "officials," in all their wisdom, have not removed and cannot remove any a single atom of carbon from the ecosystem by killing the camels, and that killing them actually would serve to speed the release into the atmosphere of carbon which had been stored in the bodies of the camels.

or camels, or something.

there

I don't know why people are behaving as though once a suggestion is made, the govt acts on it. Doesn't the US have a system where the public can make submissions to govt inquiries? If not, that doesn't sound like much of a democracy to me...