When low wattage House Representative AOC (D-Marxist) first suggested getting rid of flatulent cows to combat “climate change” back in 2019, she was dragged by conservatives and back-pedaled from the non-binding resolution that was the precursor of the Green New Deal.
Now a group from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Australia has published a study that suggests breeding less gaseous bovines can “permanently reduce methane production.”
New research suggests that breeding dairy cows to fart less — and, therefore, release less methane — could cut down on greenhouse gases.
The team from Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Australia combed through 27 reports, drawing conclusions about various ways to curb methane emissions in the dairy and beef sectors in the country.
If I’m reading that right, this isn’t even original research. The Aussies studied other people’s studies to reach their conclusions.
Food production is one of the leading causes of climate change — livestock farming accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions — with one 2020 study finding that burps and farts from cattle, as well as manure management, are a significant contributor to global warming.
The latest study, published in the journal Climate this month and the first of its kind, suggests that transforming farmland into forest or wetland would be most effective at reducing methane, but breeding less gassy cows may also be an avenue worth exploring.
OK, first of all, cows have been been burping and farting for thousands of years and the climate has been just fine. Any change has come from the rise of technology and the internal combustible engine. It’s not the cows—but these eco-warriors just can’t help themselves from meddling with the ecosystem that God arranged.
Second, it’s not the farts that are the problem, it’s the burping.
He says he was dismayed to see Ocasio-Cortez blaming “cow farts” for greenhouse gas emissions. Technically, she’s right: As cattle digest food, they release nitrous oxide and ammonia in their manure, gases that have planet-warming potential. But the more abundant greenhouse gas, methane, comes out mostly through their burps, which makes them a more significant driver of climate change. None of this is funny to Mitloehner, by the way, whose research involves putting cows in air-tight tents to measure the content of their “eruptions.”
I mean, if you’re going to mess with the biological makeup of a cow, at least target the right end of the digestive tract.
Third, do you realize that the amount of CO2 (the other main “greenhouse gas” alongside methane and nitrous oxide) in our atmosphere is incredibly small? Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) asked a panel of “witnesses” during a House Transportation Committee meeting in March 2023, “What percent of our atmosphere is CO2, carbon dioxide?”
None of them knew. They just guessed, anywhere from 5 percent to 8 percent. LaMalfa then dropped the mic: “The answer is point-zero-four percent [0.04%]. Not 1 percent, not a half of a percent, point-zero-four percent. And it’s gone up from point-zero-three over the last couple of decades … It’s this tiny change in CO2. If we get below point-zero-two, plant life starts dying off.”
In other words, our CO2 levels are just barely above what our trees, shrubs and flowers need to survive. If anything, doesn’t it seem like we should increase our CO2 levels?
If we were to take LaMalfa’s point-zero-four percent and turn it into a number, this is what we’re talking about: 0.0004 or “four ten-thousandths.” Expressed as a fraction, 1/2500. Hardly something to be alarmed about.
Now, how much methane do you think is in the atmosphere? More than the amount of CO2? Here’s what NASA says:
Methane is an important trace gas in Earth’s atmosphere. Even though it only makes up 0.00017% (1.7 parts per million by volume) of the the atmosphere, methane traps a significant amount of heat, helping the planet remain warm and habitable. The amount of methane in the atmosphere is the result of a balance between production on the surface and destruction in the atmosphere. Methane forms when organic matter decomposes in oxygen-poor environments, such as marshes, rice paddies, or the digestive systems of cattle. It also comes from combustion (burning) of carbon-based fuels.
Oh. So “methane is an important trace gas in the Earth’s atmosphere” that keeps us warm. And it makes up even less of the atmosphere than CO2 (which, I note, is not produced by flatulent bovines). Maybe we don’t want to “permanently reduce methane production.”
Logically, shouldn’t the climate change heroes be focusing on CO2, especially since we only have (according to AOC) ten five years to save the planet?
Nope. Self-appointed busy-bodies who think they’re following “the science” are going to engineer a less farty cow to save the planet.
Frankly, I’d like them to figure out how to breed less farty people.
