It’s
no secret that cows emit methane gasses into the atmosphere. What is surprising
news is that large dairy farms could be contributing to the greenhouse gas
effect. The greenhouse effect is the trapping of the sun's warmth in a
planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to
visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the
planet's surface. Trapped greenhouse gases lead to a warming of the earth’s
atmospheric temperature, resulting in global warming.
Both cars and cows emit methane gases into earth’s atmosphere.
According to the article, “Methane produced by cows in New Zealand's
intensifying dairy industry and vehicle exhausts have helped drive up the
country's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the last two decades,
according to a government report out Friday.” This is very devastating news;
methane is being emitted into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. The article
states, "The four emission sources that contributed the most to this
increase in total emissions were dairy enteric fermentation, road transport,
agricultural soils, and consumption of hydrofluorcarbons," said the
report.”
Although,
this is alarming, all hope is not lost. According to the article planting trees
helps to combat against this issues and funding from the government in order to
pay for research methods aimed at alternative fuel sources. Evidence from the
article states, “…at the same time, these reports show we are planting more
trees; from 2008 to 2012, afforestation exceeded deforestation. Forestry is an
important part of New Zealand's climate change response as forests remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."… Farmers were also producing more
meat and milk with less greenhouse gas emissions and government investment in
research to support further reductions would help meet future targets.”
It will take 100% involvement
from everyone if we want to see a reduction and change in global warming and
climate change. According to this report, “…We need to do our fair share when
it comes to reducing our emissions. Our per capita emissions are well above the
average …"We're basically free-loading. That's bad for the climate and
it's a massive risk to our extremely valuable clean green image."
In
conclusion climate change is a real global concern that affects everyone that
calls planet earth home. If we want to continue to enjoy moderate whether in
the appropriate season, then we must start to take this concern serious and
began devising ways in which we can produce more and protect our planet at the
same time, if at all possible.
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