
A diet supplemented with red algae could reduce greenhouse gases emitted by cows - smb111
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612452/how-seaweed-could-shrink-livestocks-global-carbon-hoofprint/
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sctb
Previously:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17036221](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17036221)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12998395](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12998395)

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yholio
It's interesting that very effective technical solutions exist to the global
warming. Yet, we are rejecting for political reasons the regulatory solutions
that would see them deployed on an industrial scale.

A 10% levy on beef produced with strong methanogensis would make producers
scramble for solutions such as these, while having an almost negligible effect
on consumer prices - if sufficient time is allowed before the tax comes into
effect. The results, absolutely massive, displacing trillions of equivalent
investments in energy generation and transportation.

~~~
NikolaeVarius
When I hear ideas like this, I keep wondering what the backlash would be if
there was a 10% levy on all internet based services/software to tax the energy
use of data centers, laptops trying to run electron apps and compile react
projects.

~~~
Ensorceled
If the levy was on data centres not consuming green energy sources, the
backlash would be nil.

~~~
jonas21
Agreed! In fact, many tech companies with large datacenters already use 100%
renewable energy (or will soon). For example:

[1] [https://blog.google/outreach-
initiatives/environment/100-per...](https://blog.google/outreach-
initiatives/environment/100-percent-renewable-energy/)

[2] [https://www.apple.com/environment/climate-
change/](https://www.apple.com/environment/climate-change/)

[3] [https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/renewable-
energy/](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/renewable-energy/)

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mrfusion
I was going to patent this idea but it’s so simple I think I’ll let you guys
have it.

Did you know methane is lighter than air and rises? So we simply house cows in
a building where the ceiling is a conical shape and we periodically collect
the methane from the top.

Or if it’s too hard to collect we simply pass it through a flame as it leaves
the top of the cone and convert it to co2, way less of a warming gas compared
to methane.

I suggest this under the assumption most cattle are factory farmed meaning
raised indoors? But you could arrange for them to at least be in this building
during peak methane production. Timing their food intake and such.

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kmm
A cow release on the order of 100 kg of methane per year. Natural gas costs
about 1 dollar per 2 kg of methane.

I don't know how hard methane extraction is from air with ppm concentrations
of it, but could it be done for less than about 50 dollars per year per head
of cattle?

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ams6110
Carbon emissions from cows are made up of carbon from the current environment.
Not fossilized carbon. Even as methane, it's not a big deal, it's short-lived,
and ultimately carbon-neutral.

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the8472
Methane is a stronger greenhouse gas in the short and medium term, which is
non-negligible due to feedback effects.

Additionally cows are not carbon-neutral if you take opportunity costs into
account. The land used to make feed could be forest sequestering carbon
instead since eating vegetarian or poultry based diet requires less primary
production to yield the same calorie intake for humans.

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adetrest
Or we could re-evaluate how we eat and drastically reduce the amount of meat
produced and consumed.

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tjoff
Or we could do both.

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aceon48
So instead of taxing carbons... just mandate that cows have to eat these

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pvarangot
And if any cow disobeys the mandate the punishment is dismemberment and being
eaten.

