# The greatest threat to the environment?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 8, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055 "2007-03-08T03:39:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/1 "2007-03-08T03:39:47Z")
MMMMMMMmmmmm…soda.
Or bottled water.
Juice maybe?
What do you do with the bottle when you are done? Put the top on it and throw it away? Maybe a portion of you actually make the effort to recycle. But c’mon …most don’t.
Of the billions of bottles that are used around the world each day, what percent are emptied, then recapped and trashed?
So I think the threat is clear. The atmosphere of our beloved Gaia is slowly being buried in landfills around the planet.
How much time do we have? Can anyone do the calculations?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/2 "2007-03-08T03:59:42Z")
Is this a joke? Do you want a serious answer? What are you looking for?
Soda bottles are not the greatest threat to the environment. Would you like an opinion on what is?
Jim 😕
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### Author:  [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/3 "2007-03-08T04:12:16Z")
I recycle mine. Every penny counts.
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### Author:  [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/4 "2007-03-08T05:24:15Z")
If I buy bottles/cans of whatever when I’m out I bring them home to put in the recycle bin. If I see a recycle bin while out, I’ll use that instead of dragging them home.
I brought plastic bottles and cans home that I bought on our road trip vacation through Arizona and New Mexico just so I could put them in the recycle bin.
I also reuse plastic bottles as ice packs for coolers instead of buying those blue ice thingies.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/5 "2007-03-08T06:06:04Z")
There’s a difference between litter and pollution. The greatest threats to the environment are usually invisible little molecules.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/6 "2007-03-08T12:57:46Z")
…like the carbon dioxide bubbles in _da-da-da-dahm_ SODA!
The OP was right, for the wrong reason. Oh, the humanity!
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/7 "2007-03-08T13:03:47Z")
The OP is talking about the air inside the re-capped soda bottles no longer being in the atmosphere, and therefore unavailable for us to breathe. I’m thinking he is joking a bit.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/8 "2007-03-08T13:11:31Z")
Just a thought: burying carbon-based products is surely beneficial these days, since it’s keeping it from the atmosphere. A landfill is therefore a very useful carbon sink. So let’s stop recycling. 😕
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/9 "2007-03-08T14:22:30Z")
I always thought it was averace, as in the North American drive for more, more, more.
More toys, more garbage, more consumption of resources. More, more, more!
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### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/10 "2007-03-08T15:32:50Z")
Cow and pig farts. No, really! Methane from the bowels of millions of cows and pigs creates a global warming hazard that may rival the automobile, but is less likely to be controlled, because people still want to eat meat. If the animals now raised for food were slaughtered and _their_ food (milliions of tons of grain) were used to feed people instead, two problems could be solved at once. That is probably less likedly than controlling automobile emissions, though, because there are so many meat eaters in the world . . . like me.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/11 "2007-03-08T15:35:05Z")
[QUOTE=Largo62]
Cow and pig farts. No, really! Methane from the bowels of millions of cows and pigs creates a global warming hazard that may rival the automobile, but is less likely to be controlled, because people still want to eat meat. If the animals now raised for food were slaughtered and _their_ food (milliions of tons of grain) were used to feed people instead, two problems could be solved at once. That is probably less likedly than controlling automobile emissions, though, because there are so many meat eaters in the world . . . like me.
[/QUOTE]
Can you back that up with a cite? I recognize that Cow and Pig farts may be contributing, but I thought the “may rival the automobile” part was just a piece of misinformation that has been floating around. Probably started by PETA. 😉
Jim
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### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/12 "2007-03-08T15:52:42Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
Can you back that up with a cite? I recognize that Cow and Pig farts may be contributing, but I thought the “may rival the automobile” part was just a piece of misinformation that has been floating around. Probably started by PETA. 😉
Jim
[/QUOTE]
I have read (and I don’t remember where) that methane emissions from livestock worldwide were a real problem. But I have no cite, I’m afraid. The “_may_” rival the auomobile part was just an opinion, That’s why I didn’t say “rivals the automobile.” I just threw it in for comparison. This is IMHO, after all.
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### Author:  [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/13 "2007-03-08T15:55:23Z")
The greatest environmental threat?
The sun.
Second-greatest?
Volcanoes.
Got any more questions?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/14 "2007-03-08T16:21:17Z")
[QUOTE=DirkGntly]
The greatest environmental threat?
The sun.
Second-greatest?
Volcanoes.
Got any more questions?
[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah smarty, what about Dinosaur killer sized Meteorites and Comets?
How about Super-Volcanoes? Total Nuclear War? 😉
I think these all run ahead of standard Volcanoes.
* * *
**Largo62** , OK. I believe the threat from Bovine Emissions\* has been exaggerated. I will attempt to cite my belief to clear this up despite the forum.
[Methane emissions from cattle in Journal of Animal Science, Vol 73, Issue 8 2483-2492, Copyright © 1995 by American Society of Animal Science](http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/8/2483)
> [@](#):
>
> Increasing atmospheric concentrations of methane have led scientists to examine its sources of origin. Ruminant livestock can produce 250 to 500 L of methane per day. This level of production results in estimates of the contribution by cattle to global warming that may occur in the next 50 to 100 yr to be a little less than 2%.
So while it is a contributor, it is a small part of the overall equation.
[On cars and power plants.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6556413)
[QUOTE=NPR Article]
Scalia pointed to the fact that this case involves a challenge to the EPA’s failure to regulate carbon emissions from automobiles. Only 6 percent of global warming emissions come from cars in the United States. Justice Alito followed up, suggesting that regulating that 6 percent wouldn’t amount to much.
Milkey: “Another 20 percent of carbon emissions come from power plants, and we have another case on that awaiting the outcome of this case. Moreover, ANY reduction in carbon emissions would mean we would lose less coastline.”
[/QUOTE]
So Bovine Emissions\* trail Autos and Power plants by a good margin. US Cars alone contribute to 6% of the world’s global warming emissions. So worldwide reduction in Auto Emissions is a big piece of solving the threat and Power Plants is a even larger piece.
Sorry for cite invasion to IMHO, I have heard this animal emissions thing many times and I was pretty sure it was not correct. I thought it was worth clearing up.
Jim
- Band Name?
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### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/15 "2007-03-08T23:45:51Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
The OP is talking about the air inside the re-capped soda bottles no longer being in the atmosphere, and therefore unavailable for us to breathe. I’m thinking he is joking a bit.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. What is the volume of the earth’s atmosphere? Can we extrapolate from soda sales just how much of the atmosphere is captured in sealed, empty soda bottles each year? How long do we have until we have sufficiently buried our own atmosphere amid our own garbage?
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/16 "2007-03-08T23:47:26Z")
There are no ‘threats’ to the environment. Whatever happens, happens.
There might be threats to some hypothetical ‘ideal’ environment you have envisioned (imagined).
Don’t recycling plants create greenhouse gases?
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/17 "2007-03-08T23:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=newcrasher]
Yes. What is the volume of the earth’s atmosphere? Can we extrapolate from soda sales just how much of the atmosphere is captured in sealed, empty soda bottles each year? How long do we have until we have sufficiently buried our own atmosphere amid our own garbage?
[/QUOTE]
A serious answer: Whether soda bottles are recycled or not, they will eventually wind up being crushed, and therefore releasing the air they contain.
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### Author:  [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/18 "2007-03-09T00:34:40Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
A serious answer: Whether soda bottles are recycled or not, they will eventually wind up being crushed, and therefore releasing the air they contain.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think most landfills “crush”. They just bury.
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### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/19 "2007-03-09T01:28:39Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
Sorry for cite invasion to IMHO, I have heard this animal emissions thing many times and I was pretty sure it was not correct. I thought it was worth clearing up.
Jim
[/SIZE]
[/QUOTE]
No problem, Jim. Thanks for the stats. I only knew that I could smell a feedlot miles before getting to it on the highway, and I assumed that the effect was bigger than it was. How about global stinking? 😃
Larry
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-threat-to-the-environment/395055/20 "2007-03-09T10:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=newcrasher]
I don’t think most landfills “crush”. They just bury.
[/QUOTE]
Right. Eventually, though, the bottles will be crushed beneath the weight of the garbage on top of them.
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