What contributes more to global warming, cow farts or cars?

Question

Cow farts are methane. This is a serious question.

Answer 1

Cow farts are inconsequential - you're thinking of cow burps and cow dung. These account for approximately 7% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/printable_news.lasso?id=7263&table=news
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greenhouse_Gas_by_Sector.png

Worldwide, cars account for about 9.9% of greenhouse gas emissions, so they're close but cars account for more.

http://cait.wri.org/figures.php?page=World-FlowChart&view=100

but in the US, cars account for 21.6% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, so cars are more of an issue here.

http://cait.wri.org/figures.php?page=US-FlowChart&view=100

*edit* Trevor usually knows his stuff, but I think his numbers are off here. My link above and the IPCC report (page 4 linked below) say that methane accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas forcings

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_SPM-v2.pdf

And my link above also states that agricultural biproducts account for 40% of methane emissions, but I don't know how much of that is due to cows. If Trevor's 18% figure is correct, then cows account for 3.24% of global warming. Even if all 40% were due to cows, they would be responsible for 7.2% of the human contribution to global warming, which is less than cars.

Answer 2

Cars. I know your serious--but the cow thing was never serious science, which some people don't realize.

The "cow farts' thing was a joke--a mock "presentation" some scientists gave at a conference a while back makking fun of all the stupid ideas the so-called "skeptics" keep dreaming up as ad hoc "theories."

Only the anti-global warming idiots were so ignorant, they didn't even realize it was jsut a joke at their expense! which makes it even funnier, when you think about it!. lol

Answer 3

Cars contribute 6.5 times as much to global warming as cow farts do.

Here's the math...

90% of the volume of gas burped and farted by cows is nitrogen, the remainder is primarily methane. Of all the methane produced as a result of human activity cow farts account for 18%.

Methane, as a greenhouse gas, accounts for just under 8% of the total contribution to global warming from greenhouse gas emissions (this figure takes account of the fact that methane is 23 times as effective at retaining heat as CO2).

In total cow burps and farts contribute approx 1.44% of total global warming, cows burp nine times as much gas as they fart so the component contributions are 0.144% from farting, 1.296% from burping.

Cars (not road transport as a whole, just cars) accounts for 9.9% of the CO2 emissions. Total CO2 emissions account for 77% of GHG emissions by volume, CO2 contributes 72% towards anthropogenic global warming, cars are therefore responsible for 9.257% of the contribution to global warming.

Answer 4

Neither contribute to global warming.

Methane levels have stabilized, and been stable for several decades. More "cow farts" or any other "cow gases" are not increasing the Methane levels, therefore they are not contributing any additional warmth from the so-called greenhouse effect.

Cars may contribute CO2 to the atmosphere, but CO2 has such a minor effect on Global Temperature (less than 1 degrees C if you double it from pre-industrialized levels) that the little tiny bit (less than 20% of 1 degree C) is impossible to measure. Period.

Answer 5

The Cow Fart Thesis stinks so much even Global Warming Alarmists are backing off from it.

Answer 6

Cars

Answer 7

no longer a great deal. Cows and different animals make a contribution in areas the place they're exceptionally focused and fed particular diets that reason greater methane launch. those are areas alongside with very densely packed feedlots. i assume it would desire to be available that human flatulence contributes slightly to pollutants and climate replace, in spite of the undeniable fact that it won't be some thing we concentration on. perfect now we are slightly greater fascinated with regard to the billions of vehicles that produce lots greater pollutants than human beings farts. If we did no longer have massive factories and vehicles and whatnot to concentration on and hardship approximately, according to hazard we'd concentration an excellent on flatulence, yet we've larger fish to fry. the reason it particularly is reported for animals is considering it particularly is their basically contribution to pollutants, and consequently that's what we concentration on whilst we talk that animal's functionality in pollutants and climate replace. If it grow to be our basically form of pollutants, we'd concentration on it. yet having suggested that, if human beings farts grow to be our basically source of pollutants, we would not be interior the placement we are presently in. a minimum of no longer on the 2nd, yet according to hazard later on, whilst international warming began to happen anyhow (it particularly is a organic phenomena as a ingredient of the tip stages of an ice age, we are in simple terms accelerating and irritating the problem).

Answer 8

Global Warming activists who jet around the world to profess the Global Warming theory.

Answer 9

cars. deffinitly. there are thopusands and thousands of more cars on this earth than cows. and we use much much much much much MUCH more gas than cows fart.

Answer 10

CARS!!!!! cow frts are more natural (exept for the hormones and chemicals in them) than cars.