From a height of 500 km of a herd grazing in California. The gas emitted during the digestion of cows is equal to one third of global methane emissions
Methane, known, a greenhouse gas 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over twenty years. It has also long been known that one of the sources of natural emissions of methane (CH4) the digestion of vegetables by cattle and ruminants in general. The gas is eliminated with the manure. Around 1.4 billion cattle are raised in the world, from which about a third of global methane emissions originate, 3.7% of all greenhouse gas emissions. This is why many environmentalists say that in order to limit global warming due to greenhouse gases, the consumption of meat and dairy products should also be limited, since a cow emits the equivalent of 500 liters of methane per day.
The cattle
For several years the sensors shipped in orbit with the satellites they constantly monitor methane emissions from the fields, but for the first time they have now been able to detect the gas emitted by a herd of cattle. The herd was grazing in a field in Bakersfield, in the Joaquin Valley in California, when in February a satellite of the Canadian company GHGSat, a leading company for the detection of greenhouse gases remotely, passing at an altitude of 500 kilometers, noticed the emissions of CH4. The emissions detected in the Bakersfield field, if compared to a full year, would be equal to 5,116 tons of methane, enough to power 15,400 homes.
May 3, 2022 (change May 3, 2022 | 18:41)
© Time.News