Although the man who is supposedly going to lead our country in a few months says it’s not, global climate change is REAL. And sadly there is no Lorax to speak for the trees, just you and me. Which might sound silly to you if you are not a scientist or a policymaker or a trillionare who can just go out and buy everyone a Tesla. But what if there are smaller, simpler ways to help? If you haven’t already heard, cow burps are a significant contributor to global climate change (this is not satire). As ridiculous as this may sound, it appears to be very much true. Cows belong to a group of animals whose digestion includes a process called enteric fermentation. These animals, referred to as ruminants, have a compartment in their stomach called a rumen in which food is broken down by fermentation. A side-effect of this process is the production of methane gas, which the animals then burp into the atmosphere.
So how can you keep cows from burping? Well, you can’t. But what you can do is eat less cows. The amount of cattle living in the United States is around 100 million, and all of these 100 million cows are constantly burping methane----a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. The 2006 United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization report claimed that the livestock sector generated more greenhouse gas emissions than transport. The reason for this great quantity of burping, climate changing cows is the profitability of the meat industry. The demand for beef in our diets is high, thus the supply is high in order to meet these needs. If beef becomes less central to our diets and more beef is being left on the shelves, it would be economically silly for farmers and companies to continue sustaining such a large quantity of cows. Thus, getting steak and burgers off your plate is a great way to start helping the environment. (And then when you are rich you can buy everyone a Tesla).
But what about the wild ruminants like bison, you ask? They burp too! Well I asked this too and found out that the issue of climate change-contributing burps stems from the obscene amount of livestock currently residing in the US. The best historical estimates suggest that the number of bison roaming the Great Plains was about 30 million. This is more than 3 times less than the US’s current quantity of cattle. And, on a non-methane related note, the amount of crops required to sustain this large amount of livestock is rather ginormous as well. Huge plots of land in the US are devoted simply to the feeding of livestock. If there is a lower need for production of food for livestock sustenance, this land can be used to plant food for humans or, better yet, left alone uncultivated to add to planet Earth’s ever-residing green spaces.
So maybe you can’t save the world by giving up hamburgers, but if everyone just tries at least a little, it really can make a difference. And you don’t even have to become a vegan or a vegetarian to help. Even just decreasing your intake of beef is a step in the right direction.
