GLOBAL warming is perhaps the biggest
threat the Earth has ever faced.
Scientists and environmentalists grappling with ways to avoid the disaster
have found a bacterium that eats up
methane. The researchers hope the
organism could be used to fight global
warming by preventing greenhouse
gases from reaching the atmosphere. An
international team of researchers found
the bacteria growing in acidic peat bogs
in western Siberia. Plant material
decays in the bogs releasing gases such
as methane into the atmosphere.
Similar peat bogs in Russia, Canada, the us and northern Europe form the
largest source of atmospheric methane
in the world. The bacteria, known as
Beijerinckia, oxidise methane into carbon dioxide, reducing emissions of the
gas by up to 90 per cent from such bogs, said Jizhong Zhou, a molecular biologist from Michigan State University, USA. Because the bacteria naturally regulate methane, scientists are hoping that the organism could lead to a new technique for controlling human-made emissions. Whether bacteria alone can solve
the problem of global warming remains to be seen.
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