Swedish Scientists have discovered that farting shellfish are contributing vast amounts of greenhouse gases. They're spewing out methane and nitrous oxide, two nasty agents behind climate change that have a warming potential of 28 and 265 times more than carbon dioxide respectively.
Scientists studying the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden found that shellfish are producing 1/10 of all the greenhouse gases released there. It's equivalent to 20,000 cows worth of greenhouse gases. So don't worry about your car, it sounds like farty clams are going to bring the apocolypse.
Chief scientist Stafano Bonaglia, from Stockholm University, said:
âIt sounds funny, but small animals in the seafloor may act like cows in a stable, both groups being important contributors of methane due to the bacteria in their gut.â
But Bonaglia points out that shellfish have been spewing their gases long before climate change was a thing, and thinks that the recent emissions are caused by run-off from agricultural fertilizer enriching the waters.
He also adds that while the shellfish are really farting it up, it's nowhere near as bad as the cow farts on land.
So it sounds like the Flying Dutchoven polluting the seas isn't anything to worry about. Drive your car and let the animals fart.