Cause of Global Warming

[Godiva]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Aug 21 2006, 09:25 PM) [snapback]307257[/snapback]</div>

It may be they are speaking of cows in a broader sense. The deforestation that goes hand in hand with cattle. The vast amount of grains that are gorwn to feed cattle to produce 1/3 or less energy than would be had if we just ate the grains. Then toss in the expulsion of gas and waste. There are A LOT of cows in this world. A LOT!
[/b]

No. It said "cows produce methane, more potent blah blah". Nothing about side effects or contributions.

Again. How can people believe it's all the fault of cow farts and that human activity has contributed nothing to Global Warming?

BTW I think I read that the methane from cow farts is minimal compared to factories and cars/vehicles. And that would be cow farts and burps, sheep farts and burps, goat farts and burps...you get the idea. BTW cows aren't the only ones producing methane. Plenty of methane is produced from landfill, I.E. the dump. And that would be....human activity.

While it may be romantic to blame the humble cow's farts for Global Warming, my money is on the termite.

" What kind of animal has the highest worldwide output of flatus?
Believe it or not, the animal that wins this honor is the humble termite. Because of their diet and digestive processes (with more than the usual microbial assistance), they produce as much methane as human industry. Termite farts are believed to be a major contributor towards global warming."

" Is it true that cow farts contribute to global warming?
Recent research has shown that most methane produced by cows and sheep emerges from the mouth rather than the anus. So one could more accurately say that cow and sheep belches are contributing to global warming. New Zealand researchers are investigating methods of breeding methane-free sheep."

Facts on Farts

What I find is that methane is the #2 contributor to Global Warming behind C02. Cows produce 20% of the methane and methane is resposible for 20% of the Global Warming. Or something like that. The rest is Human Activity.

News forum

Reducing farts in cows, sheep and chickens.

Don't know what we can do about the termites, though.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Godiva, that fart facts link is hilarious!!

[nerfer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 21 2006, 09:12 PM) [snapback]307244[/snapback]</div>

I find it hard to believe that cows farting has more of a negative impact on Global Warming than human activity I.E. cars and factories. (Not counting agricultural fertilizers and corn vs. grass et al.)

How many cow farts = a year's worth of running an ICE car on average? Anyone?
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You kinda missed the point, the context was, is it better for a particular acreage to have forests, grain fields or pasture?

ICE vehicles and factories aren't on this land in question. But human activity is still an integral part of this, since forests would have little human activity associated with them, pasture has some, including the raising, transporting, feeding said cows, and grain fields has more activity (more tractor usage, applying fertilizer). The worst situation, GWG-wise, is to raise corn/grain, cut it down, process it and transport it to feedlots to feed cows packed in in unnatural conditions. You still get the fossil-fuel emissions, plus cow emissions, minus the positive of grass storing carbon to the humus, if that theory is correct. Unfortunately, that's how most beef is produced in the U.S.