I apologize for not posting this during the appropriate discussion; I had to
recover
it from an Email I wrote in 1983 ...
.. .The authors estimate the world's termite population at 2.4 x lO**17 and
calculate
that the insects efficiency of digestion is 60 percent or more. Digestion
depends primarily
on the decomposition of food in the termite's gut. On the basis of measurements
made on
termite colonies maintained in the laboratory, the authors estimate that the
gross amount
of carbon dioxide produced by termites worldwide is 4.6 x l0**16 grams (1.01 x
lO**14 lbs.)
per year, more than twice the net global input from fossil-fuel combustion".
The corresponding amount of Methane is 1.5 x lO**14 grams (3.31 x lO**ll lbs.)
and for
molecular hydrogen 2 x lO**14 grams (4.41 x lO**ll lbs.).
>From JAN 83 'SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN' as quoted from 'SCIENCE' magazine article by
P.R. Zimmerman and J.P. Greenberg of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, S.O. Wandiga of the university of Nairobi, and P.J. Crutzen of the
Max Plank Institute for Atmospheric Chemistry in Mainz.
What this means is that each year we breath 5.09 x lO**10 (50.9 billion)
tons of termite farts.
Horton
70544.1507@Compuserve.com
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