| WELLNESS CHECK
This edition leans... | | Hey Below the Fold fam,
While we've talked about climate change a fair amount before, today we're taking a look at an interesting solution that taps into animal intelligence. Our team chuckled and is feeling hopeful knowing so many different solutions are being tested these days. Maybe all those videos of cats using toilets aren't that unrealistic either… | | A toilet for cows could help the environment
Mon Sep 13
The latest in climate solutions? Potty training cows. You see, an individual cow urinates roughly eight gallons each day. As that urine mixes with soil, it produces nitrous oxide, a colorless gas that accounted for roughly seven percent of greenhouse gases in 2019. And if that wasn't enough, frequent cow peeing also produces between 55 to 110 gallons of methane a day. Both these gases are more detrimental to the earth than carbon dioxide: nitrous oxide has 296 times the global warming potential as CO2 while methane has 80 times.
That's why a group of German researchers created the MooLoo, an outdoor toilet made of turf that collects, treats, and neutralizes cow urine to pose a lesser risk. And while not every cow was successfully potty trained, the group says collecting even 20% of global cow urinations could significantly reduce emissions. That said, the cow toilet does not yet account for stool, which is also a major nitrogen contributor.
And the problem stretches beyond just emissions. Nitrogen compounds pollute rivers, making the water dangerous for people to swim or drink from and poses a risk to wildlife.
That said, a lot of the burden falls on American farming practices. Cow manure is stored in pits that encourage bacteria whose growth doubles the amount of methane produced. This method was previously unaccounted for resulting in big underestimations of global emissions. In fact, adding in the emissions caused by manure pits bumps global emissions by 37%. What can be done to change that? - The obvious solution is cutting livestock production, which the Netherlands is considering. Their hope is to force farmers to cull herds by 30%, reducing nitrogen contributions by simply eliminating some of the source.
- Then there's the livestock's diet. One study shows cattle feed cut with three ounces of seaweed could reduce methane emissions by 82%. That said, Burger King faced controversy over a campaign last year in which they fed lemongrass to some of their livestock, which has been shown to reduce methane emissions by 33%.
| | Gizmodo: (Where we found this story) 5 days old | 6 minutes long | | CTV News: Details of the MooLoo 5 days old | 5 minutes long | | | Washington Post: Data behind greenhouse gas producing urine 2 days old | 8 minutes long | | Cow poop contributing to global warming
3 years old | 4 minutes long | | | - Yesterday: Cities experiment with cash incentives to reduce gun crimes
- Wednesday: Kosovo loves the even more after military donation
- Tuesday: Charging a path towards textiles as batteries
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