I’ve seen this debated all over the place lately and I just can’t seem to get a straight answer. I know cattle rearing is environmentally damaging for other reasons but is there a simple yes/no answer to the methane issue?
Explain like I’m five please.
In: Earth Science
It is strictly speaking closed cycle with the methane eventually breaking down into carbon dioxide and then getting absorbed by the plants that the cows eat. However there are lots of caviots to this. For one methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas then carbon dioxide. So releasing methane into the atmosphere, even if from renewable resources, will cause a lot more climate change then releasing the same carbon as carbon dioxide. Secondly a lot of cattle farming relies on unsustainable farming practices. This ranges from feeding the cattle on palm oil that have been grown in an unsustaniable way to large amounts of potasium rich runof depleating the already low world supply. This means that even though the methane released from cows is strictly speaking part of a closed cycle it does cause a lot of global climate change compared to other forms of food manufacturing.
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