Explained like I'm 5 - Cows don't pollute

A. Cows don't create carbon, they perform neither nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. They can't create elements.

B. Everything that comes out of a cow, must have gone into the cow.

C. Grass grows using carbon from the environment.

D. Cows eat grass, because they are a ruminant.

E. All the gas that comes out of a cow went into the cow as grass.

F. Therefore all the carbon that come out of a cow first has to be captured by grass to go into the cow.

G. Cows are part of a natural biocycle, they do not create pollution.

H. If cows don't eat the grass something will - animals, fire, microbes, and the biocycle will continue.

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[–] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 child)

Maybe in the future, cows won't produce methane and we'll just have to worry about land use and the efficiency of raising cows for food. But historically and presently, they produce a huge amount of methane and contribute significantly to climate change.

I also note that the methane isn’t a big problem, cattle methane is probably tiny compared to fossil methane

This specifically is why I replied to you: you didn't know something, made a guess, and were very wrong about it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    you didn't know something, made a guess, and were very wrong about it.

    I actually said we don't know, and your response pretended we do. Great job of clearing things up. We don't know because gas extraction companies don't report their leaks

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