3 ms·

A 500 g packet of butter has a footprint of 4.7 kg of CO2 equivalent. If a car does 200 grams of CO2e / km, distance by car on the store trip would have to be o

• thatcat 10y ago
  Most atmospheric methane produced photo oxidizes to CO2 after about 20 years though. CH4 + 2O2 -photons---> C02 + 2H20 I'm not sure what time scale of heat per mass equivalencies are based on in your example; there is approximately 28 : 1 heat/mass eq. ratio at the 100 year scale, during which time the heating effect decreases exponentially with the decrease in methane concentration[0]. After 100 years the ratio is approximately 1:1 since almost all methane has decomposed. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane
  • zurn 10y ago
    20 years is a very relevant timescale since we need to prevent the tipping point of melting artcitc methane deposits and loss of reflection from permafrost areas.
    • thatcat 10y ago
      Yea, I agree. Cows also live about 20 years, so even not breeding cows wouldn't solve this problem. The morality of eating butter is kind of a moot point when all the production mechanisms are already in place and they aren't flexible. A possible solution would be methane fixing bacteria (methanotrophs) in the guts of cows or in the ocean where > 75% of the current concentration atmospheric methane originates. The ocean also contains a significant amount in solid form that gets released as temps rise. [0] [0]http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/12/09/warmer-pacific-ocean-could-release-millions-of-tons-of-seafloor-methane/ http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/12/09/warmer-pacific-oce...
      • philipcristiano 10y ago
        Cows can live that long but after production drops (about 4 years) they will be sold off for beef. Not breeding cows would definitely help. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_cattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_cattle lists a few sources for the 4 years figure.
      • deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]