Climate Change/Weather

Cow farts are bad for Earth, but cow burps are worse. New plan could help cows belch less.

USA Today–Belching – not flatulence – is the major cause of methane produced by the world’s cows and a Seattle-based company has just won $1.5 million to test a product to make cows burp less.

Both ends of a cow produce methane, but 97% of all the methane gas from a cow is released by belching rather than farting, according to the U.S. Dairy Council and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.

Methane accounts for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection agency. And it’s more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.