The world needs to reach “zero” carbon emissions by 2030;

To have the opportunity to avoid the worst effects of climate change that threaten the existence of humanity on the planet.

This was the content of the crucial and unequivocal message delivered to world leaders and presidents in a comprehensive report that saw scientific and global consensus on climate by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Methane is the main driver of global climate change, and although it degrades faster than carbon dioxide, it is about 25 times more effective at trapping heat, and recent scientific reports and studies have found that levels of methane in the atmosphere are currently higher than they have ever been It was over 800,000 years ago.

And “methane” (CH4) is a hydrocarbon, an essential component of natural gas, and also a “greenhouse gas” (GHG), so its increase in the atmosphere critically affects the Earth’s temperature and climate system.

It is also the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2), and is responsible for about 20% of global emissions. Over the past two centuries, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have doubled, largely due to human-related activities.

Because methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is short-lived compared to carbon dioxide, achieving significant reductions in its concentration in the atmosphere will have a rapid and important impact on global warming and global warming.

Methane is emitted from a variety of human and natural sources, and anthropogenic emissions sources include: landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and some industrial processes, but there is another source of methane emissions, which is Cattle herds, which contribute 5.5% of greenhouse gases, and cattle in particular, contribute 70% of that proportion.

So, cows are a major source of methane, as they release it during burping, and one study found that (95%) of the methane that cows release comes from burping, and it is a byproduct of their digestive system, so gas from cows and livestock is a major driver of methane emissions, in the states The United States of America, for example, ranks second in air pollution after the oil and gas industry.

The number of cows in the world

There are more than a billion cows living in different parts of the world, and some reports estimate that their number is more than 1.5 billion cows, and the truth is that cows are everywhere, and in some countries their number exceeds the number of people, as is the case in New Zealand, for example. limitation.

The livestock sector - including cows - annually consumes about 6 billion tons of dry feed, including a third of global cereal production, and 86% of the global intake of livestock feed is made from materials not eaten by humans, and ruminants such as cows consume 72% of the global intake. For livestock grain, while grass and leaves represent more than 57% of the food of ruminants, according to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The livestock sector is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as the supply chains of livestock emit a total of 8.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, and “methane” represents about 50% of the total, and “nitrous oxide” (N2O) and “dioxide.” Carbon" shares are estimated at approximately 24-26%, respectively, according to the previous report.

But cows remain a major source of milk and its derivatives and "beef", and the world's production of beef was estimated at 60.57 million metric tons in 2020, as the United States of America alone produced approximately 12.38 million metric tons of beef that year. .

The number of cows in some countries exceeds the population, as in New Zealand, for example, but not limited to (Shutterstock)

What is the solution?

The quick solution that may come to mind is to reduce the number of cows and herds of cattle in the world, and this is what some countries have begun to try to implement, such as Ireland, which has about 7.3 million head of cattle, most of which are cows, a number that exceeds the population in this country. Ireland has a population of about 5 million, and this country has a long history of animal husbandry, extending to its myths and cultural heritage, including the "Cattle Raid at Coley", an epic tale of the Irish Iliad, as agriculture dominated the economy in the 20th century, shaped the A vision of Ireland still fascinates its visitors, yet cows are now a symbol of the predicament of the world's climate crisis.

Instead of cutting emissions, Ireland has continued to increase them, with its 135,000 farms producing roughly 37.5% of emissions, the highest in the European Union, mostly from methane associated with burps from cows and ruminants. The treacherous" (The Guardian) in a report.

So, under a new government plan, agriculture must reduce emissions by 25% by 2030, and not only that, other sectors face greater challenges, as transportation must reduce emissions by 50%, and commercial and public buildings by 40%, but The largest proportion of the protests came from farmers, in particular cattle breeders.

They say cutting emissions by a quarter would bankrupt many farmers and could lead to the culling of hundreds of thousands of cows. "The mood is very depressing," Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Milk Suppliers Association, told the Guardian.

The farmers and their allies accused the government of capturing rural Ireland, leaving the farmers little option of culling the herds.

Apart from solving the culling of millions of cows and the consequent problems for Irish farmers, some scholars have proposed another solution.

Does seaweed solve the problem?

Professor Andre Britto, Associate Professor of Dairy Cattle Nutrition and Management at the United Nations, who is also part of a team of New England scientists, has investigated whether seaweed feeds into nearly 90 million livestock in the country. It could help reduce methane emissions, wbur.org said in a report.

Brito said that a cow's 4-chamber stomach is "home to billions and billions of microorganisms that primarily digest animal fibers." Some of these microbes then release methane as a by-product. Methane release begins, meaning the gas spreads all the way through, and throughout the eating process from beginning to end.

Certain types of seaweed contain special compounds that disrupt the ability of these microbes to produce methane, so if you put some of that seaweed in cow feed, it burps less methane.

But there's a snag. The seaweed, known to significantly reduce methane, is a species called Asparagopsis taxiformis that grows in Australia, and trying to grow it elsewhere is very difficult, and growing it in terrestrial tanks would have a large carbon footprint. As mentioned by the previous source.

Nicole Price, senior researcher at Bigelow Oceanographic Laboratory, is working with Britto to find alternative seaweed. Our cattle?

Price and her team have identified about 10 native seaweed species, and dozens of single-celled microalgae, that can have similar methane-inhibiting properties, and they are now conducting the necessary scientific tests to confirm their properties and suitability for use in cow feed. Over time, the researchers hope to Identification of the most effective seaweed in disrupting the methane production process in a cow's stomach.

Beef production is a major driver of tropical deforestation and a major consumer of fresh water (Shutterstock)

Objections

Some researchers argue that a simpler way to reduce methane emissions from the beef and dairy industries is to stop eating beef and dairy products. "There would be an immediate benefit to reducing our consumption of meat, dairy and animals," said Evelyn Kemper, president of the Boston Vegetarian Society.

She also said that cows are not only a major source of methane, as beef production is a major driver of deforestation in the world's tropical rainforests, and a major consumer of fresh water.

The researcher also sees the study of seaweed as a kind of circumventing the problem, in an attempt to bypass a major systemic problem. "The experience of feeding seaweed to cows is the idea of ​​treating animals as if they were machines, where you can change the fuel to change the emissions," she said.

mossy competitor

But Britto thinks a herd of Jersey cows at the University of New Hampshire may be part of the answer, as Britto is testing a candidate type of seaweed, whose efficacy has been determined in the lab, a red seaweed from the Gulf of Maine called Irish moss. , small amounts of it are added to the usual cow's feed, and indicated that the preliminary results show a decrease in methane gas by about 15% to 20%.

Scientists will also test other types of seaweed, and Brito is optimistic, "If you have a steady methane reduction of 20-30%, we will have more sustainable animal husbandry."

Reducing methane by 20%-30% is less effective than Australian seaweed, and studies have shown a reduction of 80%, but the team finds that if seaweed reduces methane by 30% and can be produced in large quantities sustainably, methane emissions could be reduced. They're shrinking by nearly two million metric tons, and in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, that's like taking 10 million cars off the road for a year.

But this is really just a bet, and what is certain is that we need to reduce methane emissions sharply if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and seagrass-eating cows can be part of the solution, but not the whole solution.