3 ms·

Most of the ill effects come from industrial scale production, which (at least in the USA) probably covers 99% of production. Regarding your personal cow, it do

Most of the ill effects come from industrial scale production, which (at least in the USA) probably covers 99% of production. Regarding your personal cow, it does produce (from quick googling) ~220 lbs of methane a year, which seems to trap ~85x as much heat as an equivalent amount of CO2 over a ~20 year timescale, or ~30x as much over a much longer timescale, so that's like releasing ~18700 lbs of CO2 each year in the short term. A gasoline powered car will produce about a pound of CO2 per mile driven, so you can think of your cow as being equivalent to having an extra car that drives 18.7k miles per year (or ~9.5k miles per family). Eating half a cow seems pretty close to driving an extra car.

captainredbeard 5y ago
Apples to oranges - a pasture raised cow doesn't produce as much methane because the "rumen flora" differs between a grain-based and a forage-based diet. The bacterial population is so different between the two foods that if you switch a cow's feed to grain too quickly, the ensuing bloating can be life threatening. The bacteria digesting the corn is what produces the most methane. Unlike CO2, methane breaks down in the atmosphere so it's not an infinitely growing sink, it's a rolling window.
- mechagodzilla 5y ago
  Brief research doesn't really appear to support that - grass fed cows seem to put on weight much slower, and therefore produce methane longer, and the methane of course degrades into CO2 (hence the 'effective' amount of CO2 over a given time period). But the differences between the two seem to be relatively small-ish (certainly 'different sized apples' rather than apples and oranges).
  - Zababa 5y ago
    Does this take into account the CO2/energy used to harvest the grain and move it?
  - rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
    Methane is CH4. It doesn't degrade to CO2 so much as the relative ability to trap infrared radiation is given in proportion to what an equal number of CO2 molecules would absorb/trap. Similarly, other gasses like refrigerants are rated in Global Warming Potential (GWP) units based on 20 years of absorption of infrared. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential

captainredbeard 5y ago

Apples to oranges - a pasture raised cow doesn't produce as much methane because the "rumen flora" differs between a grain-based and a forage-based diet. The bacterial population is so different between the two foods that if you switch a cow's feed to grain too quickly, the ensuing bloating can be life threatening. The bacteria digesting the corn is what produces the most methane. Unlike CO2, methane breaks down in the atmosphere so it's not an infinitely growing sink, it's a rolling window.

mechagodzilla 5y ago
Brief research doesn't really appear to support that - grass fed cows seem to put on weight much slower, and therefore produce methane longer, and the methane of course degrades into CO2 (hence the 'effective' amount of CO2 over a given time period). But the differences between the two seem to be relatively small-ish (certainly 'different sized apples' rather than apples and oranges).
- Zababa 5y ago
  Does this take into account the CO2/energy used to harvest the grain and move it?
- rainbowzootsuit 5y ago
  Methane is CH4. It doesn't degrade to CO2 so much as the relative ability to trap infrared radiation is given in proportion to what an equal number of CO2 molecules would absorb/trap. Similarly, other gasses like refrigerants are rated in Global Warming Potential (GWP) units based on 20 years of absorption of infrared. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential