Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is copping rivers of ridicule for talking about cow farts and climate change. But she's not wrong.
Bill Gates has written about cow farts so often that he's just recently said "I'm done with cow farts". The simple fact of the matter is that cows produce a lot of methane which is a way more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, to the extent that agriculture is responsible for fully a quarter of climate change gases.
So let's lay off AOC, on this.
ADDED: Shapiro in #749 “Biden his time”, has a go at AOC, querying her statement that cows (aka cattle) needed to be fed different feeds to reduce their flatulence, mocking “like what, Pepto-bismol?”. But AOC has a point, even if she only half remembers, as I only half remember, a Nat Geo program on the results of experiments with different feeds for cattle and the dramatic reductions they made to bovine flatulence. And if you think it’s a minor problem, well, Bill Gates doesn’t. He’s done a deep dive, and says it’s a big problem, so if cattle diet would help, Let it help. It’s important. AOC suffers from the perception of her that she’s just a bit of a “ditz”; she could certainly do with reading a bit more and working out her talking g points a bit better. (And, by the way, she is still a ditz on other stuff, socialism, for example. And support for BDS).
ADDED: Shapiro in #749 “Biden his time”, has a go at AOC, querying her statement that cows (aka cattle) needed to be fed different feeds to reduce their flatulence, mocking “like what, Pepto-bismol?”. But AOC has a point, even if she only half remembers, as I only half remember, a Nat Geo program on the results of experiments with different feeds for cattle and the dramatic reductions they made to bovine flatulence. And if you think it’s a minor problem, well, Bill Gates doesn’t. He’s done a deep dive, and says it’s a big problem, so if cattle diet would help, Let it help. It’s important. AOC suffers from the perception of her that she’s just a bit of a “ditz”; she could certainly do with reading a bit more and working out her talking g points a bit better. (And, by the way, she is still a ditz on other stuff, socialism, for example. And support for BDS).
Here's Bill Gates, on cattle, farts and etcetera…
I'm done with cow farts.I've written about them several times over the last six months, and I bring them up in polite conversation more than I should. In my defense, I have a legitimate reason: cows, with their burps and farts, are a good example of something that contributes to climate change but isn't related to generating electricity.Most discussions about fighting climate change focus on electricity and the need for renewable energy. De-carbonizing the way we generate electricity would be a huge step, but it won't be enough if we don't reach zero net emissions from every sector of the economy within 50 years (and make a serious dent in the next ten). That includes the agriculture, forestry, and land use sector, which is responsible for 24 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions—just one percentage point less than electricity.
Gates Notes are a recent must-read for me. It took me too long …
