DTW’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Beef vs. Beans & Greenhouse Gasses

  First, amc89 I think you raise a very good point - that local beef may have a greater impact than well traveled beans.  As folks are discussing, many factors could swing the equation in one direction or the other: are the beans from 400 or 4000 miles away?  How is the cow fed/feed grown & transported?  And so on.  

  I want to chime in on methane's role in this balance, which SustainableGreen began to address.  The figures I cite below are from John Houghton's "Global Warming: The Complete Briefing" 3rd ed. (highly recommended)  Houghton is former chairman of the IPCC's Scientific Assessment Working Group.  Junk science is a significant impediment to mainstream understanding, yet here's what Houghton has to say about methane:

  1. Atmospheric methane concentration has more than doubled since 1800.

  2. The concentration of methane (CH4) is far less than that of CO2: just under 2 ppm vs. 370 ppm respectively, yet...

  3. CH4 is still a factor because each molecule has 8 x the heat-trapping effect of a CO2 molecule.  The good news is that they degrade in 12 years, much quicker than CO2.

  4. Lastly back to the cows: on p.43 he estimates that cattle's annual CH4 contribution is 90 million tons, whereas the entire coal, natural gas, and petroleum industry emits 100 million tons CH4 (not CO2).

  So cow farts are no joke.  CO2 is the main culprit, but  methane can't be dismissed.  I might feel good about occasionally eating cow IF it were from a small scale farm, thoroughly local, and organic, but most cows have significant CO2 hoofprints as well.

  As for solutions, I LOVE that the authors planted their own beans!  Gardening is rewarding, sustainable, radical, and fun.  We should stop mowing our lawns and sow gardens in their place.  I look forward to the book, the rest of the discussion, and to trying out the 100 mile diet this summer!On Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chew the fat on their 100-mile diet posted 2 years, 7 months ago 13 Responses