Climate change blow is blamed on windy cattle

FLATULENT cattle are helping drive climate change by pumping out ever larger quantities of a potent greenhouse gas, a study revealed yesterday.

It said levels of methane – which is 21 times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide – have been growing since 2007. In 2014 the growth rate of methane in the atmosphere was double that of previous years.

But scientists at Royal Holloway college in London said this growth is not being driven by car or industrial emissions, as before. It is being accelerated by cattle, swamp gas and paddy fields.

Potent

The study, in the US Geophysical Union’s journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, said that methane’s “isotopic data can allow us to locate and identify the source type (gasfield, wetland, and cattle population)”.

It said growth has been particularly strong in the tropics where vast areas are being cleared for agriculture.

Lead author Professor Euan Nisbet said: “Our results go against conventional thinking that the recent increase in atmospheric methane must be caused by increased emissions gas, oil and coal.

“Our analysis... points to increased emissions from microbial sources, like wetlands or agriculture.

“Atmospheric methane is one of the most potent greenhouses gases. Methane increased through most of the 20th century, driven largely by leaks from the gas and coal industries.

“At the beginning of this century it appeared that the amount of methane in the air was stabilising but since 2007 the levels of methane have started growing again. The year 2014 was extreme, with the growth rate doubling.”

Greenhouse gases are so-called because they trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere and drive global warming.

Large volumes are released by burning fossil fuels but they are also released naturally from the decay of plants and trees and from animals’ digestive tracts.

Scientists say it is possible the natural processes that remove methane from the atmosphere have slowed down but it is more likely that there has been an increase of emissions instead. from natural