Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAngryPostman
Haha! The thought that cows produce more methane than an oil refinery is laughable. Decomposition of organic materials(bodies, vegetation etc.) produces more methane for the simple fact that necrosis covers the whole earth compared to the small area of a cows insides where enteric fermentation takes place!
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Consider that there are only 150 operating oil refineries in the US and there are on average over 100 million cattle in the US. So we have some 670, 000 cows for every refinery. Now let's look at other countries. India has over 250 million cows and less than 30 refineries. Worldwide we are looking at about 1.2 billion moo cows. Now to be honest, there are other places besides refineries that have flare stacks, such as; treatment plants, pumping stations, production centers, etc. The important point is that the gas is mostly being burned there and most of what is released to the atmosphere is not methane but rather CO2 and water vapor. Both, of course, are greenhouse gases and thus contribute to global warming.
Have we all lost sight of the fact that the same gases and the global warming effect they produce is what keeps this planet livable for us. If we didn't have them, it would be a damn cold place on this old dirt ball.