Does it work on humans too? Just asking for a friend
Haha, I was thinking the same thing....
Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
141–150 of 282 posts
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#142I'm sure that this is a dumb question, but is methane from cows a contributor to global warming? Is that the significance of this study? Thanks.
Ronald Reagan's lasting legacy is that car farts are the one thing he was actually correct about.
http://www.chicagonow.com/dennis-byrnes-barbershop/2016/12/r...
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#143I'm sure that this is a dumb question, but is methane from cows a contributor to global warming? Is that the significance of this study? Thanks.
The dumbest questions begin with a disclaimer like the one used here.
Yes, methane, especially from cows and livestock, is a contributor to global warming. Other sources of methane worthy of concern include oil and gas wells (apparently they leak a lot) and other quasi-natural sources like the breakdown of plant matter in forests (often because the forest is cleared).
Methane is far more potent than CO2 but also far shorter-lived. I would argue in many ways it's far less of a concern because it doesn't interact with plant and animal life to anywhere near the extent elevated CO2 levels do.
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#144Does the methane get released after the cow has finished digestion and the manure is left to rot? The carbon has to go somewhere if it's not turned into methane inside the cow.
Apparently most bovine-sourced methane comes from the burp part of the cycle rather than the fart. Manure may actually come in third when it comes to methane and the cow.
Like humans (86%!), I suspect most carbon that passes through a cow is exhaled as carbon dioxide.
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
TFW your climate change denialism goes so far off the deep end that you literally claim that warmer water in the most global of the oceans isn't related to global warming...
Climate change isn't the weather. It isn't one year or several years, it's a trend over decades or centuries or millennia. Do you know what's normal? Abnormal weather. Exceptional circumstances happen all the time, weather conditions do not follow a bell curve. I am not at all denying climate change, but you can never point to an event and shout about it. It's a long term statistical trend, not a few coincidental eve…
For the record, our ability to link individual weather events to climate change is not zero. In the last 3 years or so we have become pretty good at it.
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21852/attribution-of-extreme-wea...
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
As other posters have said, it seems like it can be tricky to incentivise cattle owners to add algae to their feed, check this has actually been added, in proportions that have the desired effect, and so on. But how about if governments provide subsidised feed centrally, instead, with the algae added?
What if it turns out to make healthier cows? I'm not just making that up, I think it will probably have a positive effect - cows need iodine too! Not sure if it's enough to sway farmers.
Can't believe this comment is the only mention of iodine in both the thread and the article. I supplement iodine daily and it's honestly changed my life.
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any immediate economic incentive to adding algae into feed? Wouldn't you agree that markets don't deal effectively with many or most commercial endeavors' unwanted side effects (negative externalities), and so authorities often need to step in when market failure causes damage? In this case, if the science is real, a global treaty would seem in order to simply mandate the effective use of seaweed in cow feed…
> Is there any immediate economic incentive to adding algae into feed? You can charge more for it? Many consumers are willing to pay more for environmentally-friendlier options now.
I'm sure some genius could come up with a marketing campaign around "Fartless Beef".
Here, I'll give it a try: "Think outside the butt."
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#148It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because right now the West coast from San Francisco North to at least Fort Bragg, has been suffering a kelp die off of great proportions. No one is quite sure whats going on, but apparently due to climate change, or at least warmer ocean water from further South that we've had for the last 5 or more years, has caused the kelp to die off at a rapid rate, to the point o…
No one knows what’s going on, so climate change is the default blame? But actually, California Fish and Wildlife DO know what’s going on: “Environmental stressors included impacts from a toxic algae bloom off the Sonoma coast in 2011, a widespread sea star disease in 2013 that was followed by an explosion in the sea urchin population, and the warm water conditions that have persisted offshore since 2014. In 2014 and…
Downvoted, and I want to explain why. It's not because I disagree (I do), nor for the tone (tho it's unpleasant), but because it presents what only looks like reasoned argument on the surface, while suffering from internal logical inconsistency. Your comment isn't legit dissent as a persecuted minority, it's nonsense.
You say "...it's not climate change, it's [X,Y and Z]." But you list things that are perfectly consistent w/ dire warnings from consensus scientific community that global warming is _definitely_ real and _probably_ anthropogenic (tho this latter is less important).
Then (paraphrasing), "things have been getting warmer for a long time so it's ridiculous that there was a tipping point in 2015".
And you detest people who don't follow this "logic".
Next we have a half-baked strawman arg about blaming capitalism...
You're right that pollution is a massive problem, but while true it's also (nearly) irrelevant to the question of ocean temp.
I strive to avoid feeding trolls, but posts like this that only look substantial on the surface are even more corrosive and imho worth calling out.
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#149I'm sure that this is a dumb question, but is methane from cows a contributor to global warming? Is that the significance of this study? Thanks.
The dumbest questions begin with a disclaimer like the one used here. Yes, methane, especially from cows and livestock, is a contributor to global warming. Other sources of methane worthy of concern include oil and gas wells (apparently they leak a lot) and other quasi-natural sources like the breakdown of plant matter in forests (often because the forest is cleared). Methane is far more potent than CO2 but also far…
Ok I assumed that was the case. Thanks for the clarification.
Re: Seaweed in Cow Feed Reduces Methane Emissions Almost Entirely
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
TFW your climate change denialism goes so far off the deep end that you literally claim that warmer water in the most global of the oceans isn't related to global warming...
Climate change isn't the weather. It isn't one year or several years, it's a trend over decades or centuries or millennia. Do you know what's normal? Abnormal weather. Exceptional circumstances happen all the time, weather conditions do not follow a bell curve. I am not at all denying climate change, but you can never point to an event and shout about it. It's a long term statistical trend, not a few coincidental eve…
I think of it like rolling dice. Say you've got a pair of 6-sided game die.
Rolling a 12 represents a massive weather event (eg so-called "century storms"), and gobal warming replaced some of each cube's faces (say, changing the 4's or 5's to a 6) then for a given roll, you can't say for sure whether global warming's to blame -- but when 12's start showing up more than 1/12th of the time, you also can't say "that's absolutely not related".