Isn't cow methane just part of a natural cycle?
Besvaret 26. oktober 2026
The carbon in cow methane does cycle, but that doesn't make the methane climate neutral. The carbon comes from plants that recently absorbed it, so when the methane breaks down into CO2, that CO2 counts as part of the short-term carbon cycle. Methane lasts about a decade in the air, and during that time it warms tens of times more strongly than CO2.
So steady emissions don't keep adding warming the way CO2 does, but they hold temperatures higher for as long as they continue. And emissions aren't steady: livestock methane rose 10-13 percent between 2000-2006 and 2017. That is why farm methane must come down, write researchers who themselves favour a new way of counting methane (GWP*). In a commentary, other researchers warn that this method lets today's big emitters off the hook.
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