Now Oktober is over, the recovery from Oktoberfest can begin. (We all drank at least a stein of beer a day, right?)
But it’s not just our livers that have taken a pounding over the past month. According to researchers at Munich’s Technical University, the planet also feels the hangover.
The boffins declined to partake in the city’s booze-fest, instead wandering around the perimeter of the Theresienwiese festival site waving mobile methane sensors. Who says Germans don’t know how to have fun?
They found that the event emitted nearly 1,500kg of methane over over its 16 days. For context, that’s about 10 times the amount that came off the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in the same period.
Apparently, most of the extra emissions come from inefficient and leaky mobile cooking devices: a problem that can be addressed. But about 10% – a small but not insignificant amount – was attributed to the burps and farts of gaseous beer drinkers. Ideas to prevent that on a postcard, please.
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