Minimize methane emissions

To the editor:

Global warming, climate change and the associated greenhouse gasses are the most important issues in our world today.

Major studies show that levels of the greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane are way above what would be present without human activity.

Environmentalists point out that burning coal and using petroleum products for fuel introduces large amounts of carbon dioxide. They state that if coal was no longer used and petroleum products minimized, greenhouse gases could possibly be controlled.

Something that is seldom mentioned in detail is methane. Although methane is only about an average of 9 percent of greenhouse gases, it initially contributes about a hundred times more toxic effects to our environment than carbon dioxide. Environmental methane derives from rotting organic material, our landfills, our sewage, but primarily from animal agriculture.

In the United States alone there are at least 25 billion livestock being raised each year. The major cause of environmental methane is animal feces and the natural digestive rumination of over a hundred million cattle via belching and flatulence.

Even if carbon dioxide release could be almost completely cut off, there would still be runaway greenhouse gas production as a result of animal agriculture. Reducing methane emissions would have a much quicker effect on global warming because it has a short environmental life and would be out of the atmosphere much faster than carbon dioxide.

To slow runaway global warming, carbon emissions must be greatly reduced, but more importantly, animal-based methane emissions must be minimized.

Dean Barnum

Cedar Rapids