Methane Gas

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foghornleghorn2
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Methane Gas

Post by foghornleghorn2 »

You hardly hear about methane gas when the green issue comes up, here are some figures that will amaze you (well they amazed me)

In South America there are about 55,000,000 cattle.

Each animal will emit between 800 and 1000 litres of methane a day.

Methane is 23 times more efficient as a greenhouse gas than co2 (so it is 23 times worse for the environment)

So 55 million times 900 (average gas emmision) = 49,500,000,000 litres per day times 23 (to get co2 equivalent) = 1,138,500,000,000 per day

In a year that is equivalent to 415,552,500,000,000 litres of co2

That is a lot yike*

Article here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... study.html

Interesting that South America is also depleting the rainforest which converts co2 back into oxygen to make way for more ranches to produce more cattle.

Another article here

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 27843.html
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Orfy
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by Orfy »

That's one of the reason I don't think the Government should be milking us car drivers in the name of saving the world.
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by Totally Scrambled »

Orfy,
I heard about the amount they produce some years ago and there are only really three solutions. 1/Don't let the majority of them breed so their numbers drop which wouldn't be a quick solution. 2/ Kill most of the cows, a quick solution to the problem but would cause problems for the animal rights folks. 3/ find some way to collect it, maybe to use as a fuel. Only problem with that is I don't think it would be possible to make a portable version to fit to each cow which means you'd have battery cows, in sheds that could collect the gas.
Apparently the problem has grown over recent years as more third world countries (that didn't usually eat beef) become more affluent and aquire a taste for it. This has lead to more demand, hence more cows, hence more poor countries clearing more forests for cattle grazing so that they have more money.
Like most things it's a vicious circle.
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by Mallard »

Not intended to be facetious, just how much does the human population produce? confused>
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foghornleghorn2
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by foghornleghorn2 »

Orfy, my point exactly, tax the motorist in the name of green and ignore the big problem.

Removing the cattle would then deprive us of milk, cheese, butter all regular food items but then you would be losing the meat as well. No more beef or burgers.

Research is being done into diet to try and reduce the amount of gas.

But more cows plus less forest = big problem,

Did you know that it takes 990 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk yike*
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Orfy
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by Orfy »

Mallard wrote:Not intended to be facetious, just how much does the human population produce? confused>


Nothing near that of a cow. The way their digestive system works causes the production.

I'm not sure what the situation is with pigs and goats.

The amount of CO2 produced by cars is minute (like 0.5%) compared to natural emmisions.
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p.penn
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by p.penn »

Perhaps a green tax on beans and pulses then?
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by Effie »

Methane production in cows comes out of their mouths rather than the other end of the digestive process as it is in humans :-D
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Re: Methane Gas

Post by saint-spoon »

foghornleghorn2 wrote:Removing the cattle would then deprive us of milk, cheese, butter all regular food items but then you would be losing the meat as well. No more beef or burgers.




Beef cows aren’t the same as dairy cows, the cattle in South America are in the main used for meat and not for milking. The USA has open air beef factories which are even worse because of the rapid use of resources.
I only buy British beef which in general bucks the global trend for mucking up the environment.
I’ve not yet seen a can of pet food claiming to be produced solely in Great Britain. Jus an after thought.
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