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Livestock emissions are not a closed cycle in terms of heat. The methane produced by livestock is much more potent of a greenhouse gas than the CO2 captured by
by Mechanical9 4y ago
Livestock emissions are not a closed cycle in terms of heat. The methane produced by livestock is much more potent of a greenhouse gas than the CO2 captured by the plants grown for livestock. This might not be a big deal normally, but seeing as how we're maintaining at least 500x the normal cow population, it's a big deal now.
Fun fact, methane traps so much more heat than CO2, we'd actually be better off burning methane rather than releasing it directly. That's probably not a viable option for livestock, so it seems like reducing livestock is the most viable thing to do.
Agreed that fossil fuels are also an issue.
- cma 4y agoMethane eventually degrades from UV, making it a closed cycle. It isn't cumulative like CO2. The half-life in the atmosphere is 9 years.
- orwin 4y agoDegrade into CO2 and H2O at altitude where CO2 actually have an impact.
- dashundchen 4y agoIt's also misunderstanding that livestock are not just a simple closed cycle of "soil + sun + water = grass => cow". Modern industrial ag is a chain of fossil fuel inputs via fertilizer to grow soy and corn quickly as possible, to maximize output over what land would naturally support. The vast majority of meat raised in the US is from industrial consolidated feed lots.