We don't have fireflies up in the Montana Outback. One of my favoritest things to do is sit on the hill overlooking the lower 47, with my best girl, on a soft summer night, and watch as the cows light up the night...
Posted on 01/04/2009 4:06:39 PM PST by Libloather
How kangaroo burgers could save the planet
25 December 2008 by Bijal Trivedi
COWS, sheep and goats may seem like innocent victims of humanity's appetite for meat, but when it comes to climate change they have a dark secret. Forget cars, planes or even power stations, some of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters wander idly across rolling pastures chewing the cud, oblivious to the fact that their continuous belching (and to a lesser degree, farting) is warming the planet.
Take New Zealand, where 34.2 million sheep, 9.7 million cattle, 1.4 million deer and 155,000 goats emit 48 per cent of the country's greenhouse gases in the form of methane and nitrous oxide. Worldwide, livestock burps are responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions - more than produced from all forms of transport combined. Methane accounts for the bulk of ruminant green house gas emissions, one tonne of the gas has 25 times the global warming potential of the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.
Rising populations and incomes are expected to double the global demand for meat and milk from 229 to 465 million tonnes and 580 to 1043 million tonnes, respectively, by 2050. This will almost double the amount of greenhouse gases produced by livestock, dwarfing attempts to cut emissions elsewhere. Apart from all of us turning to a vegetarian diet, can anything be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock?
Several ideas have been proposed to raise animals that are kinder to the environment. In New Zealand, researchers are testing different diets, food additives, vaccines and drug therapies, as well as breeding low-methane animals. One Australian team has even suggested we wean ourselves from cattle and sheep altogether and eat kangaroo instead - they do not emit methane.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
> Take New Zealand, where 34.2 million sheep, 9.7 million cattle, 1.4 million deer and 155,000 goats emit 48 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gases in the form of methane and nitrous oxide. Worldwide, livestock burps are responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions - more than produced from all forms of transport combined. Methane accounts for the bulk of ruminant green house gas emissions, one tonne of the gas has 25 times the global warming potential of the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.
More than adequately compensated for by our trees in New Zealand. Sure, under Kyoto we will still end up paying for our “greenhouse gases” but that is because our huge Carbon Sinks somehow don’t count.
Helen Clark and her Labor governments were responsible for some very bucket-headed stupid decisions. Signing the Kyoto Protocol was one of them. A real doozy!
I have a 6 month old dog that sounds like he has a horn implanted in his ass. I never owned a dog who had so much gas. At least the noise gives off a warning. It’s comical when the noise wakes him up and he looks around with a confused and scared look on his face.
> New Zealand...where they’re having one of the coldest summers on record...????????
Eh? It is a beautiful hot summer day here today in Auckland. Weather has been lovely for weeks.
We don't have fireflies up in the Montana Outback. One of my favoritest things to do is sit on the hill overlooking the lower 47, with my best girl, on a soft summer night, and watch as the cows light up the night...
I seem to recall Purina’s Jack-in-the-Box fast food chain once getting caught using kangaroo meat in their burgers. Maybe this is just history repeating itself?
I’ve had it and it was very tasty. Might have had a good marinade though.
I’ll allow that mine might not have been prepared properly but it truly sucked. And it wasn’t cheap, either.
Gorebull Warming
that struts and threats his horror upon the stage
and then is herd no more: it is a tail
told by an idiot, full of sound and furry
signifying nothing*
*tip of the hat to Shakespeare and Algore for the expectoration.
When I was in the meat business we bought frozen beef from Australia that we used for hamburger. We always jokingly called it...kangaroo meat.
I’d suggest you have that post pulled, otherwise you’ll be getting proposal letters from swooning, lovelorn women around the world...
;^)
” (Are the family pets next?)”
No, humans will be next.
Horses. We have way too many horses, many unwanted.
I don’t know, S, depends on what they are proposing. Besides, I don’t have to run to the hills-—I’m already there.
It is the southernmost part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Maybe in your judgement. I'd say a mix of deer and rabbit (but I've never tried rat)
Or better yet, how much methane does human release naturally? Maybe humans need to be genetic modified to be more friendly to the environment
Don’t give the eco-idiots any ideas.
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