• Question: Whta is the purpose of animals like sheep and cows when cows produce methane which isn't helping global warming?

    Asked by flissboo to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      People like eating meat, wearing wool and eating cheese or drinking milk. Modern cows make a lot of methane because they were bred to make a lot of meat, which means they eat more and fart more methane out.

      There are a few solutions – either stop eating so much beef, make cows that fart less, or somehow trap the farts (I’m gonna keep saying fart). This is one example of why it’s so hard to stop global warming – if you tell people they can’t eat beef, they get upset. Global warming isn’t really a scientific problem, it’s a political problem – getting people to vote for things that might make their life harder now, but will help slow down global warming is hard.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      “Cows make a lot of methane – what are you doing to help solve the problem?”

      “I eat the cows!”

      But yes, this is a problem, Sam has detailed it nicely. Humans do need to eat animal protein though, we need some of the essential amino acids that we get from it for our bodies to be healthy. But we do eat too much, and as a result we have too many cows producing gas.

      Another idea I think people are looking at is to use the methane (or manure) as a source of fuel, though there is some way to go before this becomes optimal.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I agree with Claire – we should just eat them all in a great big BBQ… but then I would say that I’m Australian…
      On a serious note, it’s not just the methane that is the problem with many breeds of livestock – it takes about 500 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef – that’s a huuuuge amount of water used – and some would say very much wasted.
      Also, there’s a big problem in Australia and other dry places with keeping these sorts of animals, because their hooves damage the very fragile soil. The soil in Australia is very old, and nutrient poor. When hoofed animals tear it up, it just gets blown away in the wind and we lose it. Australian animals like kangaroos have soft feet, that don’t damage the soil – and I think they taste a lot better too!
      We really need to address these problems of our eating habits if we are going to make a difference to climate change.

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