07/10/08 Bovine Belching

Good thing Bessie's mom never taught her to cover her mouth when she burped other wise scientists would not be able to measure methane, a potent greenhouse gas and one of the culprits held greatly responsible for global warming. Bessie is of course a cow. Several scientists around the world have discovered a rather ingenious way of measuring the amount of methane in cow burps by trapping it in a red plastic tank strapped to a cow's back. Like humans with broccoli or beans, a cow's diet can affect digestion and the amount of gas produced. A diet of alfalfa and clover appears to reduce methane emissions by 25 percent. With just one 1200 pound cow having the possibility of producing 800 to 1,000 liters of emissions each day a 25 percent decrease over the entire world's cattle industry would be an incredible improvement to say the least. So the next time you drive by a pasture and see cows with red tanks strapped to their backs, don't worry, it's not the bovine version of the "Rocketeer", their just doing their part to fight global warming.