The study didn’t factor in the methane produced by cattle or the carbon dioxide as soil erodes, either. All in all, Butterbach-Bahl notes that while his research doesn’t reverse the notion that red meat consumption should be reduced, it does demonstrate that grazing cows aren’t always to blame for global warming.
After carbon dioxide and methane, nitrous oxide is the most important greenhouse gas of all. It’s estimated that emissions of the gas, known as laughing gas, from grasslands in Inner Mongolia and large areas of the U.S., Russia and Canada, are responsible for a third of the total amount of greenhouse gas produced annually.
Butterbach-Bahl discovered that the grasslands in Inner Mongolia in China produce more nitrous oxide when the cattle haven’t been grazing there, such as during the spring thaw.
via Don’t have a cow! Bovine gases don’t contribute to global warming after all, study says.
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