Gassy Cows Warm The Planet. Scientists Think They Know How To Squelch Those Belches
Researchers have won a prize for discovering that a cow's genetics determine which microbes populate its gut. Some of those microbes produce the greenhouse gas methane that ends up in the atmosphere.
Cattle pass a lot of gas, and the methane from their flatulence and especially, their belches, is an expanding burden on the planet. The greenhouse gas has a warming potential 25 times of carbon dioxide.
Livestock account for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, with over half of that coming from cattle according to a 2013 report from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. Given that, some environmentalists might choose to eschew milk and beef, but scientists
