Cow chips to the rescue

 

It wasn’t very long ago that environmentalists and global warming advocates were warning us about the dangers of cow flatulence – that it is causing, or at least contributing to, global warming.

The U.N. even got into the act, issuing a report that concluded cow flatulence is a greater threat to the atmosphere than automobiles.

It has been estimated that 9% to12% of the energy that a cow consumes is turned into methane, which is released either through flatulence or burping. A huge number of factors affect methane emission, including diet, barn conditions and whether the cow is lactating, but an average cow in a barn produces 542 liters of methane a day, and 600 liters when out in a field.

All this methane can add up to a significant amount.

 

For example, Australia’s 140 million sheep and cattle are estimated to produce one-seventh of that nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and America’s 100 million cattle are major contributors to the problem in this country.

Is this a valid theory, or was the idea just floated as a trial balloon to see if it would gain legs, as they say in the media biz? Whatever the case, it didn’t stay in the news for long. Perhaps because it never seemed to get past the LOL (laugh out loud) phase.

 

A good example of the humor provoked by this issue, along with a healthy dose of common sense, was found in Jill Fallon’s post (December 14, 2006) to her EstateVaults.com website, where she said, “We have met the enemy and it moos? Apparently the beasts of the field do nothing but wander around all day asking their brethren to ‘pull my hoof.’ Every time a cow feels a small sense of relief, a polar bear goes through the ice,” she added.

Cecil Adams, in his Straight Dope Classic, “Do cow and termite flatulence threaten the earth’s atmosphere?” dealt with the cow flatulence concern as far back as March 1989: “Now, you’re probably saying, what the hey, cows have been around forever, how come all of a sudden they’re a threat?

 

All we know is this: atmospheric methane has been increasing at the alarming rate of 1 percent a year, and something’s got to be causing it.

The world cattle population is thought to have increased in the last decade, and Lord knows the Brazilians don’t feel like taking any more heat for torching the Amazon. So hey, let’s blame the cows.” (straightdope.com)

In other words, we have another largely insoluble problem that threatens to end life as we know it. Or do we?

In another example of jumping to conclusions without having all the information, in this case about cows, their manure is also considered a good potential source of energy, and many farmers are using the methane gas it produces to develop their own power source.

So, which is it: cow flatulence is causing global warming or cow waste may help save us from ourselves by providing a new energy source?

 

A recent Reuters story reported, “On a dairy farm in the Golden State’s agricultural heartland, utility Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. began…producing natural gas derived from manure, in what it hopes will be a new way to power homes with renewable, if not entirely clean energy…As cow manure decomposes, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide…Enter the Vintage Dairy project…methane can be captured and treated to produce renewable gas.”

“To tap the renewable gas from cow manure, the Vintage Dairy farm first flushes manure into a large octagonal pit, where it becomes about 99 percent water.

“It is then pumped into a covered lagoon, first passing through a screen that filters out large solids that eventually become the cows’ bedding….The covered lagoon, or ‘digester,’ is the size of nearly five football fields and about 33 feet deep. It is lined with plastic to protect the ground water…The end product is ‘close to 99 percent pure methane’ according to BioEnergy Chief Operating Officer Thomas Hintz…”

 

Once it is treated, enough gas to power about 1,250 homes “is injected into PG&E’s pipeline, where it will be shipped to a power plant in Northern California.” (“California cows start passing gas to the grid,” by Nicholas Groom, Reuters, Mar 4, 2008)

Talking about cow flatulence may be good for laughs, but it turns out that it really is serious business, after all.

 

 

© 2008 Harris R. Sherline.

All Rights Reserved

Read more of Harris Sherline’s commentaries on his blog at opinionfest.com.