Farting Isn’t Killing Us
People say methane from cattle production is a major source of greenhouse gases. Are they serious?
Image via Wikipedia
Talk to anyone well-versed with current global warming research any longer than a few minutes, and you’ll run into the subject of farts. I run into the subject after a few minutes of talking to other people too, but in this context the subject has a serious tone that it normally doesn’t. In this context, the assertion is that cow farts, or rather the methane that they’re made of, is claimed to be a huge contributer to the total amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Without sounding like a right-wing conspiracy theorist nut who tries to debunk global warming at every opportunity, I just don’t buy it.
Let’s start off with the basics. I’m convinced that cows fart, even though I’ve never had first-hand experience of it. I’ve not been around too much livestock, but I have enjoyed the company of scores of dogs and cats, and they all fart. Even women fart, as much as they try to downplay that fact. So, I buy that cows fart, and they’re big animals so I’m willing to believe that they fart a lot.
But let’s start crunching the numbers. Wikipedia, a completely credible and defensible source of scientifically accurate knowledge, tells me that methan accounts for between 4% and 9% of the total effect of greenhouse gases. Wikipedia also tells me that livestock accounts for slightly more than 10% of methane emissions. That puts us at between 0.4% and 0.9% of the total effect of all greenhouse gases are due to cow farts. This seems like a more reasonable number, intuitively.
What this means, ultimately, is that cow farts are a source of global warming, but it’s almost completely insignificant, certainly nowhere near as bad as shoveling coal into furnaces that pump out think, black smoke, or living in a nation of 200 million where it’s commonplace to drive two blocks to buy cigarettes rather than just walking. This means you can eat your steak with a pretty clear conscience. It also means that, being much smaller than a cow, you can dutch oven you significant other without significantly harming mother earth.
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