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jyl jyl is online now
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Nor California & Pac NW
Posts: 24,782
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190617164642.htm
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2019/06/feeding-cows-seaweed-could-reduce-their-methane-emissions/

Including 1% of a particular type of seaweed in cow feed reduces cow-emitted methane by 75% or more. The active ingredient is bromoform. Methane is far more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 (37X more). Some reading I've done suggests that in the US, livestock's climate change effect is on the same order as the transportation sector. A chemist tells me that bromoform should be easy to synthesize, as an alternative to growing millions of tons of this type of seaweed. Since bromoform is probably something like 0.1% or less of seaweed, maybe the feed only has to be 0.001% bromoform, or the bromoform gets added to feed by the farmer.

Anyway, I am quite optimistic about the power of technology to address climate change, whether the climate change situation is as, more, or less serious as some think. Solar + wind + wave + energy storage, electric vehicles, seaweed for cows, carbon capture, even geo-engineering in space. I don't think we (humans) need to do everything necessary right now, just make a good start and then figure out how much and how to do more as we better understand how much more is needed.
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1989 3.2 Carrera coupe; 1988 Westy Vanagon, Zetec; 1986 E28 M30; 1994 W124; 2004 S211
What? Uh . . . “he” and “him”?
Old 01-09-2020, 12:41 PM
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