emmissions, global warming, and our carbon foot print as bikers

I am a believer in global warming. I used to not be one until recently watching a show on it. I went on the theory that I live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. It did not become the land of 10,000 lakes for no reason. It is from being carved out from glaciers, and the pooling up of water was originally, and some still is glacial. They have been tracking "global warming" since the beginning of the ice age melting. Look at Glacier National Park in Montana. They have been measuring the shrinkage of glaciers for I think decades.

Anyway the fact is global warming HAS been going on for a very long time, BUT it is extremely accelerated now with our usage of fossil fuels, and believe it or not "COWS"! We'll get to the cows in a minute.

Have you ever heard the term "carbon footprint"? Global warming is not caused from the heat from our emissions, but rather from the carbon dioxide left behind after we burn it. When we burn fossil fuels, the emission that is left behind is carbon dioxide. The build up of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere only allows "some, not all" of the heat coming in to the atmosphere to leave, thus causing a gradual buildup of heat. I'm not going to go into all the details of what can and will happen if we continue on the path we are already on. That is another lesson. Google it for more info. (If you don't already know the consequences, I SERIOUSLY HOPE YOU DO GOOGLE IT.)



O.K. back to the cows.
The emissions, or the carbon dioxide that comes out of cows rear ends is approximately three times the carbon dioxide created by the entire worlds burning of fossil fuels!



That's right you read it correctly. Just by requiring farmers to change the cows diets to make them less gassy, we could hugely reduce our carbon footprint. I heard on the special I watched that garlic introduced
into their diet would help greatly. We can also help by reducing the amount of beef we consume, thus lowering the demand for so much cattle raising.



I often think about global warming. I wonder what will happen when and if we ever convert all of our fossil fuel burning engines into something different. Will motorcycles follow? What will they sound like. There is a mystique to the rubble of a V-twin engine under you. I would certainly miss this. Will it happen in my lifetime? Will I have to resort to putting playing cards in my spokes with a clothespin like I did as a child?