An article by Vox claimed that methane produced by farm animals is a
significant contributor to global warming and scientists measuring burps
and farts could help save the planet.
The scientists who are
being paid, most likely handsomely, to measure methane emissions from
animals may not like to hear this, but measuring burps and farts will
not save the planet.
Methane, a small trace gas, has a short
atmospheric life and plays a relatively minor role in long-term warming,
despite its high warming potential per molecule.
A recent article at Vox, titled ‘Scientists are measuring burps and farts. It could help save the planet’,
claims that methane produced by farm animals is causing dangerous
global warming, and thus that reducing agriculture-related methane is
critical to limiting warming to the 1.5°C target established for
political ends in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
This is false.
Animal-related methane is not a threat to the environment, contributing
little if anything to global warming.
The article primarily
references research efforts by scientists in Columbia who measured the
amount of methane different farm animals produce in their burps and gas
depending on what kind of forage they eat, in order to determine the
feed that will produce the least methane. Animals are placed in chambers
and their emissions are monitored....<<<Read More>>>....
