Save the Earth; Don't Let a Cow Burp

[Res Judicata]

Climate Change : Yahoo! Green

Oh wow, instead of producing and eating less beef, it's much better to help global warming by pouring research money into ways to keep cows from producing so much gas.

[bamby71994]

The methane farts from the cows destroy the ozone layer. Why breed them, then kill either them or us! Diary cows, big promblems!

[piggly wiggly]

It's funny in a way that cow farts are so dangerous. They produce more methane than anything else. It is horrible for the ozone layer, but kind of funny in a way, that farts are killing the world.

[Sammy and Peanut]

Originally Posted by piggly wiggly

It's funny in a way that cow farts are so dangerous. They produce more methane than anything else. It is horrible for the ozone layer, but kind of funny in a way, that farts are killing the world.

That's exactly what I was thinking. It sounds funny when you first hear it!

[thief]

Cows only produce 16% of our annual methane production [and 21% of our CO2]. They should be pointing their research in the direction of what to do with all the manure that the animal industry produces, which is 86,000 lbs per second.
One solution they've come up with is to put it in animal feed [dog/cat food, cattle feed, chicken feed, etc.] It's listed as "protein concentrate" in the ingredients. Yummy.

[Cherish]

So... we can solve global warming by eating all the cows?

Sounds like a good plan to me!

[thalestral]

"The U.N. says almost a fifth of global warming emissions come from livestock - that's more emissions than from all of the world's transportation combined."

"Animal agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland, and feed crops cover much of the remainder."

"As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide, enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively."

"In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping 65% of our nitrous oxide."

"Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20% of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet to death." - Share The World’s Resources (STWR) - Vegetarian is the New Prius

The facts are shocking and sadly usually ignored by the masses.

[bamby71994]

No cherish that would be surporting the meat industry, which I do care about. It doesn't bug me if you eat it, but they would stop breeding then you could!

[Astrantia]

China is the world's biggest polluter taking over from the US recently. Texas as a lone state actually produces more CO2 than most countries.

The cows can't stop farting and burping, but the Texan's sure can start riding their bikes instead of taking the car a little bit more. I think it's the huge gas-guzzling pickup trucks that are a problem. Toyota Prius' all round!?

[thief]

Cherish, people who eat meat are creating a bigger demand, thus the farmers will breed more cattle, and we will have more pollution. So no, it's not a good reason to eat them. It is a good reason NOT to eat them.

[Astrantia]

I'm undecided on the vegetarian front. I was for 3 years, as I rarely ate meat before that period anyway.

Surely though, if the whole world decided to go vegetarian the dairy market would not be enough to substain the farmers and we would have a lot of people in poverty?

Isn't the first step to ensure animals aren't kept in inhumane conditions while alive?

Not sure on my stance.

[Astrantia]

But then again if we all stopped driving what kind of impact would that have?

Alas, I don't have all the answers.

[thalestral]

I would be surprised if dairy farming was not included in the above statistics given the intensity of pollution (and death) they are responsible for.


A worry for slave owners was that they would lose their livelihoods when slavery was made illegal in the Western world. Thankfully we did not let this stand in the way of progress. This is also the argument used to support the constant over fishing of our seas, and the clubbing of the seal pups around the world.

Stopping eating meat and animal products is one thing we can all do very easily. For transportation to become less ingrained in our society we may need governmental help as many of our towns and cities are built around the car rather than the people within.

Each of us must do what we must, drive when only possible, support public transportation, and of course to go vegan. It's the most environmentally and animal friendly thing we can do in our lifetimes.

[Cherish]

Originally Posted by thief

Cherish, people who eat meat are creating a bigger demand, thus the farmers will breed more cattle, and we will have more pollution. So no, it's not a good reason to eat them. It is a good reason NOT to eat them.

I was kidding, lighten up!

Although I do wonder whether or not all the people in this thread patting themselves on the back for doing their bit for the environment by not eating beef are driving to work every day in their own car...

[thalestral]

They're not.

But best of all they save many animal lives every year