Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Now it's the cow

We've known for a while that cattle would be blamed for some contribution to global warming. We've been told that "Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together." We've seen how some "environmentalists" urge us to stop eating meat because it causes global warming. Last week The Daily Mail had a rather odd article entitled "Reducing cow burping 'is key to tackling climate change'". Here are a few highlights…

Researchers say the slow digestive system of cows makes them a producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide in efforts to fight global warming.

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'When we got the first results, we were surprised. Thirty per cent of Argentina's (total greenhouse) emissions could be generated by cows,' said Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology.

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Greenhouse gases are widely blamed for causing global warming. Methane, researchers say, is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.

Twenty three times more potent than carbon dioxide? So I wonder, what's the total atmospheric concentration of methane, compared to carbon dioxide? And remember, twenty three times a "trace amount" is still likely to be a trace amount.

Oh, and as a side note "leaking natural gas pipes"? Do they mean to tell us that methane is a "natural gas"? No, they can't have meant that!

Let's not forget that trees and other vegetation produce from ten to thirty percent of all of the methane emissions produced globally each year. I don't see environmentalists urging us to cut down the worlds' trees to reduce methane emissions, just to cut back on driving and eating meat. I also don't see anyone urging us to kill off the non-domesticated ruminants out there, like the herds of cattle that roam the African savannahs. Surely they belch and fart too?

The "cow burping" article does have a bright spot. They actually are proposing a solution, of sorts…

Scientists are working to develop new diets for cows that could make it easier for them to digest food, moving them away from grains to plants like alfalfa and clover.

'We have done a preliminary study and have found that by using tannins, you can reduce methane emissions by 25 percent,' said Silvia Valtorta of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations.

I wonder where we'll get the land to plant all of that alfalfa and clover. Maybe we can stop using our farmland to grow ethanol? Maybe we can stop subsidizing the "non-use" of farmland?

Or maybe, just maybe we can admit that climate change isn't a "man made" phenomenon after all, and I can eat my steak in peace after driving home from work.