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The cow transforms the carbon from plants, originating from atmospheric CO2, into methane which has a GWP of 25, meaning its greenhouse warming effect is 25 tim
by seszett 2y ago
The cow transforms the carbon from plants, originating from atmospheric CO2, into methane which has a GWP of 25, meaning its greenhouse warming effect is 25 times higher than that of CO2. So the net result of feeding plants to cows is an increase in global warming.
- filleokus 2y agoBut the methane will oxidise down into CO2 in 8 years or something (according to Google). So essentially you pay the tax for the "GWP-bump"? It's resonable but maybe a bit hard (or at least non-obvious to me) to calculate fairly?
- seszett 2y agoMethane has a GWP of 25 over 100 years (the standard period used for GWP) even though almost all of its warming effect takes place in the first decade. Unless you want to take a reference period on the order of a millennium, methane is always going to have a significantly higher impact compared to CO2. You can find tables with values for a few different gases and periods on Wikipedia[0] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential
- im3w1l 2y agoIf its frontloaded, then it makes sense to keep this ace up our sleeve until temperatures become unbearable. Then at that time, we can cut methane for immediate relief, to flatten the temperature curve if you will. Doing it too early is pointless.