[alloysteel]

Why not simply eliminate the entire category of domesticated ruminant hooved animals? The herds would all simply be shot and dumped into huge mass graves, and the methane generated by their decomposing carcasses would be collected and used for power generation. As a one-time situation, the herds and the refuse from their eradication would be gone within only a few years, as the great goddess Gaia re-assimilates her children, and New Zealand will return to its pristine state that existed before the rapacious white race came and exploited the land.

(In case anybody missed it, the foregoing was sarcasm.)

[Jesse]

"Why not simply eliminate the entire category of domesticated ruminant hooved animals?"

I once calculated how much greenhouse gas was created by cows to make the cream for a gallon of the oh-so-environmentally aware Ben and Jerry's ice cream, then added the environmental costs of the electricity to freeze it and fuel to transport it. I think it was something like 24-26 liters methane and CO2 per gallon.

Pretty environmentally insensitive ice cream, according to Ben and Jerry's own standards. Maybe we should tax the ice cream.