Cows fed small amount of seaweed burp 86 per cent less methane in trial
Posted 4
updated 4
MarMarch 2021 at 1:41am
Cattle methane was reduced by as much as 86 per cent when their diets were subsidised with seaweed.
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Feeding cattle a small amount of a seaweed species found in Australia has been shown to reduce their methane emissions by up to 86 per cent.
Key points:
Red seaweed contains a compound that can reduce the production of methane
Proponents say it could be the equivalent of removing 100 million cars from the road if adopted by the agriculture industry
Some scientists warn the side effects of eating red seaweed on a large scale could include the production of ozone-depleting gas
Credits: Photo collage via ESI
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More extreme weather, heat waves, and inland flooding are some of the impacts that the state of Pennsylvania expects to see with a changing climate. And scientists and economists agree that, if we don’t quickly reduce the greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels like coal and gas that contribute to warming the planet, these impacts will only grow more costly and dangerous.
Yet parts of western Pennsylvania, like many regions of the United States, rely on coal and gas production to support the local economy. Through its Here and Real project, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) is investigating solutions that reduce carbon pollution and are economically just for communities that are reliant on fossil fuel production.
Measuring methane emissions in dairy cows, Teagasc, Moorepark, Co Cork. \ Donal O Leary
There are many important issues currently facing NI farming, but the one area that is really going to shape the future is carbon emissions.
With DAERA officials working on a Climate Change Bill, and under pressure from Minister Poots to get it delivered before the end of the current Assembly in March 2022, it is an area likely to attract much debate in the next 12 months.
Driving wider UK policy are targets set by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the body set up to give advice to government on emission reduction. In NI, the CCC has recommended a 48% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) and an 82% reduction by 2050.
Another 2030 point, goal on the agenda. Great reset at work.
Despite the fact that the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice during the winter maximum has declined only slightly in recent decades, the ice itself is profoundly different than it used to be. Very old ice thick, strong, and more melt-resistant has nearly vanished, and the amount of first-year ice thin, salty, and unlikely to survive the summer has skyrocketed.
This time series shows the Arctic sea ice extent in millions of square kilometers over the past roughly 1,500 years. Scientists use climate proxies like sediment/ice cores, tree rings, and fossilized shells of ocean creatures to extend the sea ice extent records back in time. These records show that while there have been several periods over the past 1,450 years when sea ice extents expanded and contracted, the decrease during the modern era is unrivaled. And just as importantly, it is beyond the range of natural variability, implying a human component to t
Courtesy of Nick War/PNNL
Trees have a little secret you might not know about. Yes, they produce oxygen. Yes, they take in carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. But, they also emit methane.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be significantly more potent than carbon dioxide.
“Just about every tree we measured had elevated amounts of methane in it. And that was consistent across the Northwest with a variety of different species,” says Nick Ward, a scientist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Studying methane
Ward has long been interested in methane.
After grad school, he was measuring methane coming out of the water in the Florida everglades. He sat down next to a giant cypress tree. Ward had read about methane actually coming out of trees, so he placed his tool over the knee a part of the tree at the base of the cypress.