help stop global warming, become vegatarian!!

i was wondering when someone would mention this. in the sindo today, there's an article by eilis o hanlon where she points out that a good way to reduce global warming would be for everyone to become vegetarian. ok so being the sindo it actually comes across as simply a way to bash pinkos and greens, but the point still stands. methane kilo for kilo has about 20 times the greenhouse potential as CO2, animals such as cows and sheep produce methane in their guts so reducing meat consumption and production could lower the rate of increase in temperature. it would also have other environmental benefits as she points out, but neglects to mention that the land freed up could be used to produce biomass.

so from the new scientist 10 feb 2007 at the moment the concentration of methane is 2000 ppb and of CO2 is 400 ppm or 400,000 ppb. atomic mass of CH4 is about 16 and that of CO2 is 44. so scaling the kilo for kilo measurement above to parts, i.e per molecule, a molecule of CH4 has roughly 55 times the greenhouse potential of CO2. so ''converting'' if you will, the CH4 concentration to a CO2 concentration for comparison gives you 110,000 ppb. now methane doesn't last as long in the atmosphere as CO2 so that number doesn't give a particularly accurate reading but still reducing methane emissions could be a very efficient way of slowing global warming.

as methane from agriculture is only part of the total of methane released (also some of that results from rice growing), reducing livestock numbers would only save some of this. i should say i'm not particularly in favour of government regulation, in fact i'm skeptical of their motivations, to slow global warming and this only reinforces that stance. apparently not too many governments want to piss off farmers, nor does it have the protectionist potential of carbon taxes. this, along with the debacle that was the Eu's attempt at a carbon market, make me think that the idea that government regulation will save us from global warming is a joke. if you want a job done do it yourself.

i should also say that i'm not much of a meat eater, though not vegetarian. and the methane link, this link all do the above calculations far better, i just like to do them roughly myself.