Global situation on methane significant

ANTON Coaker both misrepresents his initial statement on methane from cows and Professor Bruce Webb’s responses. Anton Coaker claimed that it was a lie that methane from cows was a problem due to basic chemistry. That statement was not specific to the cows reared on his moorland and Professor Webb was clearly responding to the global situation.

There are many ways that farmed animals are not the same as free living species. Intensive farming methods have cattle being fed on grain and supplements which are not their natural diet. I read that 33% of the earth’s surface not covered by ice is devoted to feed crops compared with 20% for grazing. The UN FAO says that 13 billion hectares of forest are lost to grazing or feed crops each year. Domesticated animals are protected from predation and disease and in some cases the elements – all not natural.

Nowhere was Professor Webb “blaming cows for all of the methane in the atmosphere” as Anton Coaker now claims. He correctly quoted that “total livestock emissions account for 14.5 per cent of all human-produced greenhouse gas emissions, with CH4 making up 44 per cent of this figure.” I find that UN’s FAO estimates that livestock produces 37% of humankind’s methane emissions – not insignificant.

I believe that reducing methane emissions from all sources is good and we should worry about any sources that could grow. If the world’s beef consumption matched that of the UK, it would roughly double and further increase its share of emissions.

Michael Carter, Exeter