Warm Farms Warming Warning

It seems worms are nasty nitrous oxide emitting critters, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and attempts to associate them with environmentally responsible compost management has some weaknesses.

From The Telegraph

Worms may not be as environmentally friendly as the growing number of gardeners who use them to help compost their kitchen scraps and grass clippings believe, say scientists.In fact, the greenhouse gases emitted by a large commercial worm composting plant may be comparable to the global warming potential of a landfill site of the same scale, according to the Open University.

This is because worms used in composting emit nitrous oxide - a greenhouse gas 296 times more powerful, molecule for molecule, than carbon dioxide.

Landfill sites produce methane which is 23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Jim Frederickson, senior research fellow at the Open University's faculty of technology, said: "We know from research in Germany that a third of the nitrous oxide emissions coming from the soil are associated with worms.

"What we found from looking at large worm composting systems is that their emissions could be comparable in global warming potential to the methane from landfill sites."

Based upon my own experience using worm farms in my back garden, I do know that worms become very unhappy when the thermometer heads over 30 degrees and vanish when it hits 40 degrees. This whole is disapointing and shall add it to the increasingly long list of things that I cannot or should not do because of my potential to warm the planet. Next up, lawn mowers, backyard barbeques.....

Thanks Mr Englishman