Analysis Of Greenhouse Gas Emission

Agriculture contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. The “agriculture connection” is any direct impacts agriculture has on climatic change. “Carbon dioxide is the

The author states that cows are responsible of at least 18% of methane that is in our atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is odorless and colorless. The author also states that carbon dioxide is cleaner than methane. Methane released right into the atmosphere will be a thing of the past, because the National Institute For Agricultural Technology of Argentina has created a backpack that can be placed on cows. That bag has tubes that go into the digestive tract of the cow and collects 300 liters of methane. That is enough energy to be used to power a car for 24 hours instead of being released into the atmosphere. While each bag collects only 300 liters, one adult cow will produce 1000 liters of methane in one day. One day of methane collection can power a car for more than 72 hours or 3 cars for more than 24 hours. Methane can also be used for generating electricity by burning it to produce heat. While methane is harmful, there are still ways to reduce the output of it in the atmosphere by putting it to good

It’s often argued that cows are the main source of our Methane emission, giving a strong argument to reduce, or even stop, our consumption of meat. In all actuality, only about six percent to seven percent of all greenhouse

This is a huge problem in our society at the moment as even though methane only makes up around 16% of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as shown by Figure 2 (EPA, 2017), according to a study done by Princeton University, it is around 30 times stronger than CO2 at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere (ScienceDaily, 2014). There are many natural sources of methane such as anaerobic bacterial decomposition of vegetable matter in places such as wetlands as well as being produced by volcanoes, vents in the sea floor and trapped in permafrost and being released when this ice melts. Even though there are an abundance of natural sources of methane on earth, the huge increases in methane over the last century have been caused by less natural sources such as the combustion of natural gas and coal, biomass burning, farming of livestock, and waste management (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). This topic was chosen because managing your own waste is one of the easiest and most effective ways of reducing how much methane is released into the atmosphere and as shown by Reucassel during the ‘War on Waste’ series, it is very simple to find other uses for these food scraps that don’t involve sending them to

“Over 37 percent of methane emissions result from factory farming. Methane has a global warming potential 20 times higher than carbon dioxide.”(Onegreenplanet)

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas. Even though there is less methane in the air than carbon dioxide, methane is much more absorbent of infrared radiation than carbon dioxide. Methane comes from many places. Large amounts of methane gas come from cattle. The plants and grass that the cattle eat are broken down by different types of microorganisms. Methane is then produced by their digestion process. These cattle belch every two minutes and release methane gas each time they do it. Since one cow emits a half pound of methane a day and there are 1.3 billion cattle in the world, more than 100 million tons of methane are released each year into the air (Bilger 50). Another type of animal that releases methane gas is a

Methane is a major component of natural gas and is largely produced by biological production and leaking from natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure. Some of the biological sources of methane are natural, such as termites. Other sources, however, are driven by increased human agricultural activity, such as the cultivation of rice. Recent evidence suggests that forests may be the source of

“Methane has been identified as a significant contributor to global warming. It is second to carbon dioxide in contribution to global warming and is said to be 15-20% of all greenhouse gas emissions.” (Yusuf, Noor, Abba, A. Hassan, & Din., 2012, p. 1). The majority of the greenhouse gases emitted in the agricultural sector came from livestock (Yusuf et al., 2012, p. 2). Studies have shown that “cows produce more greenhouse gases than the entire

While carbon dioxide continues to be the leading contributor to global warming, methane is estimated to be at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2), and its emissions have been increasing at roughly 6 parts per billion per year since 2006 (Nisbet et. al., 2014). Livestock produces 80 million tons of CH4

Sustainability is an issue the whole world is facing but in particular it is become a big problem in the livestock industry. Greenhouse gases are the cause and in order to preserve the planet for future generation’s changes must be made. Methane is the greenhouse gas which produced by livestock. Methane is approximately 30 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide as it is a heat trapping gas. If sustainability needs the achieved in the Livestock industry than the issue of methane must be taken care of sooner rather than later.

Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have been rising because of increasing emissions from human activities. The primary source of CO2 is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. CO2 is also produced by land use changes, including tropical deforestation. Agricultural activity and waste treatment are important sources of CH4 and N2O

The impacts of livestock on global climate change are important to the health of the ecosystem because it causes the average global temperature to increase. Livestock contributes to the majority of methane emitted into the atmosphere because of the feces it produces. The growing population increase is not helpful to this matter because as a result, a demand of food arises. This demand for food also includes the demand for livestock because it is appropriate for the human diet. “Meat production is to double from 229 million tonnes in [2000] to 465 million tonnes in 2050” (McMichael et al. 1259). The methane emission rate is bound to increase because it is “dependent upon the population size of the [livestock], their productivity, and [handling system]” (Jose et al. 3).

In order to tackle climate change, the world’s leading economies, including the UK, adopted the Kyoto Protocol in Japan in 1997 (United Nations, 1998). The aim of the Kyoto Protocol is to lower greenhouse gases (GHG) and as a consequence the UK committed to reducing their levels of carbon emission by 12.5% since 1990 and has succeeded to reduce them by 27% by 2011 (CCC, 2016).

The everyday American on average wastes an astonishing twenty pounds of food each month (Gunders). Food waste is defined, as food that was intended for human consumption but was never eaten. Food waste in America is a massive problem; perfectly edible food is spoiled and discarded at every section of the food supply chain, which causes severe consequences for the environment and the economy. If Americans wasted 5% less food, the country as a whole would save fifty million dollars yearly (Hall). Not only would reducing food waste help save money but also it would immensely help climate change, as decomposing food in landfills creates methane gas. CO2 is known as the main culprit of climate change however; although methane gas is less talked

During the past years, clean energy is increasingly being researched. An example of a clean energy technology is a “rice husk power generating system” because it produces far less green house gas emissions compared to fossil fuel power plants (Afzal, Mohibullah, & Sharma, 2011).