Anthropogenic global warming?

[AstusAleator]

http://www.theweathermakers.com/

[Cristgonz]

i think man is the main responsible of the global-warming.
my "cattle ranch's" teacher said to me that cow's farts was not an important source of CH4.
if someone could post an official report it could be nice.

[mith]

http://www.epa.gov/methane/sources.html

Cattle farming is definitely one of the biggest sources.

[AstusAleator]

wow if you combine enteric fermentation and manure management it's way more than even landfills and natural gas.

[Jones]

First of all, there is no way in hell we can blame global warming on cows, they do produce methane but they've done that forever a cow fart is not an evolutionary development. Now what does happen to be increasing is the amount of pollutants we've been pumping into the air, IF global warming is caused by humans it's not because we raise cows it's because we drive cars and build gigantic industries.

[alextemplet]

The main point behind the cow flatulence is not to blame the cows themselves but the people that keep breeding them and destroying habitats to clear land to raise them.

No matter how you look at it, global warming is a problem caused by humans.

[mith]

Well, how many cows are we ranching compare that to how many cows that used to exist in the wild and you might see a correlation to green house gases. One remedy might be to raise kangaroos instead of cattle.

[Jones]

Or big game such as elk and deer? I live in a very small place and hunting is popular, and just the other day I was talking with a friend of mine and they were saying how it would be amazing to raise and kill and sell elk instead of cows. I was wondering at first why this hadn't happened before, why people didn't start this, and then it HIT me, hunting is a huge part of the economy in Wyoming and other parts of the mid west, it's somewhere around 500 dollars for an elk license, if you're a tourist that wants to hunt! I can assume from this information that there's a chance the same thing works for kangaroos and other animals that could be raised in bulk to produce food for the U.S. and other countries. So, either we raise cows cheaply and continue to eat beef, or spend large amounts of money raising elk or kangaroos.

[mith]

Why do you assume kangaroos would be expensive to raise? There is an overpopulation in Australia. Plus elk are probably as bad as cattle in terms of methane production. Kangaroos on the other hand don't produce methane because they have a different set of intestinal fauna.

[Jones]

If you read what I put there you'd understand my reasoning.

[mith]

Well you said that it's expensive to hunt elk, therefore you would pay more, however this does not really apply to kangaroos which are plentiful and do not need ranches to raise. And even if you did raise them in a ranch, I already said that they would not contribute to global warming in the same way as cattle thus you get red meat and a smaller ecological footprint. Best of both worlds.

[alextemplet]

Hm, kangaroo is one of the few animals that I haven't eaten yet. I wonder how they taste.