A new climate change message is emanating from Norway – we have to kill the moose. Researchers in the country have worked out that the average moose produces 2,100 kgs of methane a year, equivalent in global warming terms to a 13,000 km car journey. English language versions of Aftenposten and Spiegel have the story, although the both (which I can read) credit VG (which I can’t). “Shoot a moose and save yourself a climate quota," moose researcher Reidar Andersen apparently told VG.

This is just a slightly different version of the old “cows are to blame for global warming” (see Nature from 2000). Of course it won’t stop certain people having a field day. Newsbusters, for example: “modern politics sure is entertaining sometimes, especially when one politically correct cause threatens another”. The source of this story can be found on research website Forskning, for those who can read Norwegian.

Those who believe the planet is capable of regulating its own climate may be relieved to note that a feedback mechanism to deal with this problem already seems to have kicked in. Michigan Tech in the US believes ‘Global Warming Threatens Moose, Wolves’.

UPDATE – 23/08/2007

The Times has now picked up on this, adding to our understanding by suggesting that climate change has altered moose eating habits and created “fatter moose that are more likely to break wind”. In a further strange development the paper’s leader article on the subject includes an imagined conversation between two moose named Gunnar and Henry.

Image: Getty