Cows That Burp Less Methane to Be Bred

Canadian scientists are breeding a type of cow that burps less, in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gases. Cows are responsible for almost 75% of total methane emissions, mostly coming from burps. Stephen Moore, professor of agricultural, food and nutritional science at the University of Alberta, hopes the refined bovines will produce 25 per cent less methane. Nancy Hirshberg, spokesman for Stonyfield Farm says, "If every US dairy farmer reduced emissions by 12 per cent it would be equal to about half a million cars being taken off the road."

Comments

I'm very tired of global warming

[realcoolguy425]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Atmosphere_gas_proportions.svg/180px-Atmosphere_gas_proportions.svg.png and of the greenhouse gases... http://theglobalhoax.com/science/greenhousegassource.gif [decidedly biases source... but you get the idea] Either way, I'm tired of all this global warming... nonsensical, non-scientific, love-fest. Greenhouse gases are not an issue. At least not one we can control beyond the .035% of .03%. Either way, the amount of influence we have on greenhouse gases is likely within the margin of error for test equipment anyway! Lets worry about particulate matter, smog, or at least something that is actual a problem we experience. I feel a little sick whenever I think about how much money has been spent on 'global warming' that could have been spent on so many other environmental pursuits that would actually benefit us. I guess I'll see if Al Gore has modpoints or not today!

Missing the point

[jmorris42]

Listen up numbskulls, cows belching/farting aren't a problem.

Even if you buy the CO2 == Global Warming theory, and the debate on that that is far from decided, cows aren't a problem. The whole carbon theory rests on the release of long sequestered carbon in the form of fossil fuels increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere. And that much has both science and common sense to back it, extracting and burning billions of tons of hydrocarbons has increased the CO2 level in the atmosphere.

Cows are eating plant (and other stuff you really don't want to know about) matter which fixed carbon out of the environment recently. They belch/fart/poop most of it right back into the circle of life where it goes round and round. Not a problem except to the extent fossil fuels are powering much of the cycle in the form of fertilizer to grow feed, move the cows/meat around, etc. but those are general problems with dependency on hydrocarbons that have been buried for millions of years.

Some enviro whack jobs say the methane is a 'greenhouse gas' but that is hard to buy since it is less than two parts per million currently. Even if we take the "twenty times the greenhouse effect as CO2" at face value that works out to rounding error compared to all of the other factors that influence the global environment.

So go have some cow and don't let the greens lay yet another guilt trip on you. Beef: It's what's for dinner!