COWS ABSOLVED OF CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING WITH NITROUS OXIDE

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COWS ABSOLVED OF CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING WITH NITROUS OXIDE

In the past, environmentalists from Lord Stern to Sir McCartney have

urged people to stop eating meat because the methane produced by cattle

causes global warming. However, a new study found that cattle which grazed

on the grasslands of China actually reduced another greenhouse gas, nitrous

oxide.

Authors of the study, published in Nature, say the research does not mean

that producing livestock to eat is good for the environment in all

countries. However, in certain circumstances, it can be better for global

warming to let animals graze on grassland. The research will reignite the

argument over whether to eat red meat after other studies suggested that

grass fed cattle in the United Kingdom and the United States can be good for

the environment as long as the animals are free range.

Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany,

carried out the study in Inner Mongolia in China:

* He found that grassland produced more nitrous oxide

during the spring thaw when sheep or cattle have not been grazing.

* This is because the greenhouse gas, also known as

laughing gas, is released by microbes in the soil.

* When the grass is long snow settles keeping the

microbes warm and providing water, however when the grass is cut short by

animals the ground freezes and the microbes die.

According to Butterbach-Bahl, the study did not take into account the

methane produced by the livestock or the carbon dioxide produced if soil

erodes. He also pointed out that much of the red meat eaten in the western

world if from intensively farmed animals in southern countries.

Lastly, he said the study does not overturn the case for cutting down on red

meat but shows grazing livestock is not always bad for global warming.

Source: Louise Gray, " Cows absolved of causing global warming with nitrous

oxide, " The Telegraph, April 8, 2010.

For text:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7564682/Cows-abso

lved-of-causing-global-warming-with-nitrous-oxide.html