The ethical debates between vegetarians and meat-eaters aren’t likely to be resolved anytime soon. But there’s a new twist to the vegetarian argument that bears examination: the suggestion that eating meat contributes to global warming.
Can this be true?
The pro-warming argument goes like this: Ruminants (i.e., cud chewers), such as cattle, bison, sheep and goats emit copious amounts of methane as part of their digestion. Lots of animals fart and burp, of course, but ruminants, thanks to specialized bacteria that live in their digestive tracts, produce far more methane than other animals. Since methane is one of the most potent of the greenhouse gasses, trapping roughly 20 times more heat in the atmosphere than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide, you start to see what the problem is.
We have something like 120 million ruminants being raised for meat in this country. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ruminant digestion accounts for roughly a quarter of our annual methane emissions. Add in the methane from livestock manure, and you’re up to a third.
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