Surf and Turf: How Seaweed Helps Cows Become Better Climate Citizens

Getting calories out of grass is not easy. That’s why cows and other ruminants, like goats and sheep, have multiple compartments in their stomachs to help them digest their food. One of those stomachs is populated by microbes that help break down plant matter into a more digestible form. The process, called enteric fermentation, also produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is 80 times more efficient at heating the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over the first 20 years it is in the atmosphere, before it breaks down into other compounds. A single cow releases around 250-500 liters of methane a day. There are approximately 1 billion cows used in the global meat and dairy industries, and, combined with other animals raised for livestock, are responsible for releasing the methane equivalent of some 3.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. If cows were a country, they would be the world’s third-largest greenhouse-gas emitter, behind China and the U.S., and ahead of India. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] At the COP26 climate conference held in Glasgow last week, more than 105 nations pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Most countries’ pledges focused on tamping down on their oil, gas and coal industries, which are responsible for a third of human-caused methane emissions—only a few plans focused on tackling agricultural sources of methane, which contribute 42% of the global total of the greenhouse gas....
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Climate Is Everything Explainer healthscienceclimate overnight Source Type: news