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Video: New Zealand takes on problematic methane emissions
New Zealand: Full of sheep; photo by vtveen (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
One third of greenhouse gasses in New Zealand come from livestock, according to the below report from CNN Eco Solutions.
Home to just 4 million people, New Zealand has 38 million sheep 9 million cows, which fuel large export industries in dairy, meat and wool. These animals produce vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times stronger than CO2.
Scientists in New Zealand are attempting to produce a vaccine that inhibits the microscopic methanogens that live inside the stomachs of sheep and cows from producing methane.
Vaccinating the world’s cow population is one approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock; reducing human meat and dairy consumption is another. The appeal of the vaccine is of course economic, as it would allow the industry to carry on as normal. But I wonder what the side effects of tampering with the stomachs of millions of cows might be.
by Graham Land
Tags: CNN, cows, dairy, emissions, gas, greenhouse, livestock, meat, methane, New Zealand, sheep
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