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Carbon emissions from cows are made up of carbon from the current environment. Not fossilized carbon. Even as methane, it's not a big deal, it's short-lived, an
by ams6110 8y ago
Carbon emissions from cows are made up of carbon from the current environment. Not fossilized carbon. Even as methane, it's not a big deal, it's short-lived, and ultimately carbon-neutral.
- the8472 8y agoMethane is a stronger greenhouse gas in the short and medium term, which is non-negligible due to feedback effects. Additionally cows are not carbon-neutral if you take opportunity costs into account. The land used to make feed could be forest sequestering carbon instead since eating vegetarian or poultry based diet requires less primary production to yield the same calorie intake for humans.
- kmm 8y agoIt's not zero-sum, the carbon taken out of the atmosphere in the form of CO2 to make the feed is partly put back in the form of methane, which is a stronger greenhouse gas than CO2. This means a cow is a net greenhouse gas producer. The half-life is not that long but not very short either, 10 years, but the lifetime is completely irrelevant: as long as we keep emitting the gas, the levels will stay the same or rise.