Techotic

Scientists are studying the amount of methane in gas expelled by cows. To collect their burps and farts for research, the scientists attached red plastic tanks to the cows’ backs and connected them through a tube to their stomachs, which trapped the gas.

Researchers say the slow digestive system of cows makes them a producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide in efforts to fight global warming.

When we got the first results, we were surprised. Thirty per cent of Argentina’s (total greenhouse) emissions could be generated by cows,’ said Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology.

Berra said the researchers ‘never thought’ a cow weighing 550 kg (1,210 lb) could produce 800 to 1,000 litres (28 to 35 cubic feet) of emissions each day.

Greenhouse gases are widely blamed for causing global warming. Methane, researchers say, is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.

[via dailymail]