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Sunday, 9 February 2025

Methane madness: How exaggerated climate claims are targeting farmers and cows

 As climate alarmism continues to take over headlines in the mainstream media, methane emissions from cows have become the latest target of overzealous policymakers. Governments worldwide, from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, are imposing draconian regulations on farmers, forcing them to feed their livestock methane-reducing supplements like Bovaer. But is this war on methane justified? A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the climate impact of methane has been grossly exaggerated, and the policies targeting agriculture are based on shaky, if not outright pseudoscientific, foundations.

The "Methane and Climate" study, authored by physicists William Happer and W. A. van Wijngaarden, has emerged as a critical rebuttal to the prevailing narrative. Published by the CO2 Coalition, the study meticulously dismantles the claim that methane from agriculture poses a significant threat to the planet. By analyzing the radiative properties of methane, the authors conclude that its warming potential is negligible compared to carbon dioxide (CO2). Despite this, climate activists and policymakers continue to push for costly and disruptive measures that threaten the livelihoods of farmers and the affordability of food for consumers.

At the heart of the debate is the concept of radiative forcing, which measures how greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. While methane is often labeled a "super pollutant," Happer and van Wijngaarden’s research reveals that its warming effect is minimal. Methane molecules are far less abundant than CO2, and their warming potential is heavily "saturated" at higher concentrations. In other words, adding more methane to the atmosphere has a diminishing effect on global temperatures.

Research also highlights that methane concentrations are increasing at a rate 300 times slower than CO2, making its annual contribution to warming roughly one-tenth that of CO2. This stands in stark contrast to the apocalyptic rhetoric often used by climate activists, who portray methane as a dire threat to the planet....<<<Read More>>>...