341–350 of 409 posts
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Very interesting. This is probably not applicable in areas with melting permafrost, right? Aren't there also bacteria basically digesting ancient and previously frozen organic matter?
I think the methane is already there (having been produced a long time ago), just under ground. I could be mistaken. But even then I'm not sure how those algae would help ...
It was only a naive relation I saw between the bacteria inside the cows stomach and the one in the permafrost ;-)
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> most often "skeptical science remarks" although popular, are poorly informed and misleading. I thought I was the only one who noticed this! Seems very popular and common in forums like HN and Reddit, but less so elsewhere.
I would prefer being skeptical instead of blindly accepting things. This behavior will instigate another to provide evidence or a counter-argument. This makes for great discussion, in most cases I think it is healthy.
What did you learn from this great conversation:
OP: This study has never been reproduced!!!!
Response: Uh, yes it has.
Question from the peanut gallery: The gut bacteria in a cow digest components of the animal's food preferentially and excrete methane. If you knock those bacteria out, does the stuff the bacteria would have eaten get excreted by the cow? If so, do the organisms that digest it external to the cow emit greenhouse gases?
Skeptical science remark: This whole "if cows eat seaweed that'll vastly reduce their carbon footprint" is based on a single study with 12 cows. If you take into consideration that especially small, never replicated studies often don't hold up to scrunity the next thing to do is not to ask how to produce the seaweed. The next reasonable step would be to try to replicate this study in a larger sample (and probably als…
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Bad gas corresponds to times when I'm more symptomatic. My condition causes serious gut dysfunction. Bad gassiness is one of many side effects when my gut is a mess. I've spent over eighteen years pursuing dietary and lifestyle changes to mitigate my incurable condition. I have a lot less gas than I used to.
My point is, if your medical condition is causing the gas then reducing gas wouldn't help.
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> Methane is a gas with a distinct and noticeable smell Methane is odorless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane
Interesting, thank you! I was surprised by this, as it's the major component of natural gas (as used widely for cooking here), and this has a distinct smell. I went looking however, and discovered that's actually because Ethyl Mercaptan is added specifically to make it detectable by humans. I never realised this, and does indeed explain why it's plausible no-one would have noticed such a large effect.
Perhaps we could get the same benefit by feeding the whole herd seaweed for a month, then put everyone but the fistulated cow back on regular feed, and just mix her rumen contents into it?
Skeptical science remark: This whole "if cows eat seaweed that'll vastly reduce their carbon footprint" is based on a single study with 12 cows. If you take into consideration that especially small, never replicated studies often don't hold up to scrunity the next thing to do is not to ask how to produce the seaweed. The next reasonable step would be to try to replicate this study in a larger sample (and probably als…
I agree, we need to slowly study other groups of cows to see if this is a viable solution. I'm reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling at the moment. He had a great point about "single numbers" - the jist was to always be skeptical of just a single number or metric. Here's an example [1]. During WWII, soliders were dying in their own vomit because they were laying prone on the battlefield, in sick beds, etc and left unat…
Let's not forget: - Producing cows is resource-intensive. Water and feed could be used more effectively elsewhere. - Consumption of red meat and dairy is generally unhealthy. - Runoff from cow "pastures" is effectively pollution. Encouraging less use of cows because of their impact on climate change was a win on a number of levels. Not any more.
I really think it is irresponsible to keep repeating dietary hypothesis as fact. The notion that red meat is bad for you does not have compelling evidence, based all my years of obsessively researching this ... and with the help of equally obsessive and more qualified friends. As far as I can tell, how a diet makes you feel and presents visually is the closest thing we have to a reliable indicator of the health effec…
The way I've heard it said best is this:
"Cows' milk is a nutritional and hormonal cocktail intended specifically for the growth and development needs of baby calves. Needless to say, if anyone is reading this, they are of the cow species, and should be mindful of their dietary consumption.