By ignoring natural recycling and using the IPCC calculation, Ireland ends up with 12 million tons per annum of emissions which are theoretical emissions that do not reflect reality.
Yesterday we published an article about the Irish government’s proposal to cull 200,000 cattle because the methane they produced was a major cause of “catastrophic global warming.” Whether you believe the “climate crisis” is real or fabricated, this article puts the Irish government and the European Commission to shame.
Cattle, it’s claimed, are often thought to contribute to climate change because they belch methane (CH4), a so-called greenhouse gas. While this is true, cattle do belch methane, it is actually part of an important natural cycle, known as the biogenic carbon cycle.
The basis of the narrative around the push to cull cattle is that cows produce methane, and that’s true. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, and that’s also true. So, the natural conclusion is that cows are a big problem for climate change. Here’s where the narrative goes awry because the conclusion is simply NOT true.
The mainstream media consistently portray cows as pumping additional methane into the atmosphere. This is like saying every shower of rain that falls is new water and adds to the volume of water in the sea and in time we are all going to drown.
Ruminant Livestock Methane is virtually irrelevant as a greenhouse gas. No cow, sheep, or goat has ever managed to create carbon from nothing. Methane from cattle is part of the biogenic carbon cycle which has been around since life began.
Plants capture CO2 from the atmosphere, absorbing the carbon and releasing the oxygen, the carbon is converted into carbohydrates and consumed by the cow where it is digested and some of the carbon is belched from the cow as methane. After an average of 10 years, the methane is converted into CO2 and so the cycle continues (Figure 1)....<<<Read More>>>...