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this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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The fact that you are isolating the word "potential" suggests that you don't realise what "global warming potential" actually is. It's a measurement for comparing the effect of greenhouse gases to carbon dioxide, not the top of an error bar
I understand this, but it's a comparison between the two compounds, not a comparison of the effect each are having at the volumes they get released.
Cows uptake a lot of carbon dioxide just by existing as biomass. This more than offsets any methane they fart out.
Is that second sentence something you have numbers for or a guess?
For fun, a rough estimate is 20% of an animal's mass in carbon. A cow is around 600kg (1000 pounds). That means 120kg of carbon. Carbon being 12g per mols, that is 10'000 mols of carbon. Turn that all in CO2, that makes 10'000 mols of CO2 which is 44g per mols, so 440 kg of CO2.
As methane (CH4), it is instead (16g per mols) : 160kg.
A cow produces 100kg of methane a year so a cow's biomass is not sufficient to compensate for it's methane production over its life.
Plus, when you eat the cow, you are the one farting that carbon back in the athmosphere anyway.
Still, cattle is 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.