Extracted from Conversations that Matter – Vancouver Sun May 1, 2021
The debate over agricultural methane is raging, cow burps and cow manure are in the eye of the storm.
Robert Howarth of Cornell University says, “teasing the global warming potential of agricultural methane out of he global warming equation as less potent doesn’t mater because methane is methane”
Howarth, however acknowledges that, “cow produced methane is not the big culprit in global warming potential. It is by far and away the fossil fuel industry and in particular shale gas production that is of the greatest concern.”
The reason that Howarth says that shale gas produced methane is a more potent greenhouse gas is because of the carbon isotope within it.
If you look at CO2 from fossil fuels and from most methane the C12 isotope is present, whereas in shale gas, the larger C13 isotope is also present and it has different GHG impacts.:
Howarth agrees with Myles Allen of Oxford University who says “The traditional way of accounting for methane emissions from cows overstates the impact of a steady herd by a factor of four. The errors distort cows contributions – both good and bad – and, in doing so, give fossil fuel CO2 producers a free pass on their total GHG contribution.”
Stuart McNish invited Howarth to join him for Conversations That Matter about digging deeper to understand the complex world of methane.