This might seem to be a silly question, but organic cows emit more methane. The FDA approved a supplement that will cut emissions 30 percent. What’s next?
FDA Approved
Bloomberg reports FDA Approves Feed Product to Cut Dairy Cow Methane Emissions
Elanco Animal Health Inc. received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a feed supplement that reduces methane emissions in dairy cattle by 30%, on average.
The ingredient, Bovaer, is added to cattle feed and works by suppressing a digestive enzyme that generates methane, according to the Greenfield, Indiana-based company. The FDA approval is the first for a product of its kind, and the company expects it to generate more than $200 million of revenue in the US market.
Bovaer, which is already being sold in more than 50 countries, can lead to even greater emission reductions in beef cattle, averaging a 45% cut. Elanco will also seek FDA clearance for use in US beef herds in the future, Simmons said.
Quick Fix to Reduce Cow Methane Emissions
Let’s flash back to June 2023 when this idea was first discussed. Please consider Why Won’t Companies Use This Quick Fix to Reduce Cow Methane Emissions?
A feed additive called Bovaer reduces methane from cow burps by 30%. Despite having emission-cutting goals, JBS, Danone, Nestle and Starbucks aren’t racing to use it.
“I’m puzzled why [Bovaer] hasn’t been used on a larger scale by the industry,” said Alexander Hristov, professor of dairy nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, who has studied feed additives and their impact on methane for over two decades.
One key barrier is cost. Bovaer is priced at about 30-cents per animal per day, or about $100 per year. A typical dairy cow in Western Europe will belch the equivalent of 3.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year. That means Bovaer’s 30% reduction eliminates about 1 ton of CO2 at a cost of $100. That price would be a dream scenario for the startups pulling CO2 directly out of the air—but corporations routinely spend just $5 to $10 per ton to claim emission cuts through carbon offsets (though the impact of these credits are often dubious).
The product works by stifling some of the chemical reactions that produce gas in the rumen of cows. Questions remain, however, about the extent to which cows will adapt to Bovaer and how well the methane improvements hold up over a year or two. Hristov, the Penn State scientist, is currently examining this question in a long-term study. But he and other scientists agree the product’s near-term methane reduction of about 30% is rock solid.
150 countries have signed onto a Global Methane Pledge, vowing to reduce 30% of these potent emissions by 2030. With livestock the single-biggest source of methane in many countries, this is sparking tense debates. New Zealand, for instance, has infuriated cattle ranchers by proposing a tax on livestock emissions to hit the country’s climate targets, while officials in Ireland have rankled dairy farmers by considering herd reductions as a key lever to reach its own climate goals.
Cattle emissions are equally crucial for many corporate climate pledges. Nestle SA and Starbucks Corp, for instance, have both promised to halve their climate footprints by 2030. Dairy is the single largest source of emissions for each company, and they’ve both said they’re exploring feed additives as one potential solution. Neither company, though, has moved ahead with significant efforts to use these products (both companies declined interview requests). Meanwhile, they’re both struggling to reel in their climate impacts: Since the starting point of their goals, Nestle has cut emissions 1%, while Starbucks’ climate footprint has expanded 6%.
What’s the Long-Term Human Impact?
Both of the above articles question the extent cows will adapt to it. I question how humans will adapt to traces of Bovaer over the span of 70 years.
I don’t know, I’m just wondering, which we should all given there are no stated advantages for farmers, cows, or consumers for the additive.
Safety and Efficacy of 3-Nitrooxypropanol (Bovaer® 10)
Please consider the European Food Safety Journal on the Safety and Efficacy of 3-Nitrooxypropanol (Bovaer® 10)
Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of Bovaer® 10 as a zootechnical additive for ruminants for milk production and reproduction. Systemic exposure or site of contact toxicity for the active substance 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), for which genotoxicity has not been fully clarified, in the target species, is unlikely based on ADME data available. Consequently, the FEEDAP Panel concluded that Bovaer® 10 was safe for dairy cows at the maximum recommended level. However, as a margin of safety could not be established, the FEEDAP Panel could not conclude on the safety of the additive for other animal species/categories. The FEEDAP Panel considered that the consumer was exposed to 3-nitrooxypropionic acid (NOPA), which is one of the 3-NOP metabolites. NOPA was not genotoxic based on the studies provided. The FEEDAP Panel concluded that the use of Bovaer® 10 in animal nutrition under the conditions of use proposed was of no concern for consumer safety and for the environment. The FEEDAP Panel concluded that the active substance 3-NOP may be harmful if inhaled. It is irritant (but not corrosive) to skin, irritant to the eyes but it is not a skin sensitiser. As the genotoxicity of 3-NOP is not completely elucidated, the exposure through inhalation of the additive may represent an additional risk for the user. The Panel concluded that the additive has a potential to be efficacious in dairy cows to reduce enteric methane production under the proposed conditions of use. This conclusion was extrapolated to all other ruminants for milk production and reproduction.
Coming Soon, 3-Nitrooxypropanol in Your Food
Gee, I can hardly wait.
As an added bonus, farmers and ranchers putting 3-Nitrooxypropanol in your food may get to sell tax credits on it, making you pay still more for grass fed organic beef and dairy products.
I do not know how safe the additive is. Nobody else does either. But I do know the reasons for the additive are dubious and it will increase prices.
I recommend the label “No 3-Nitrooxypropanol” for farmers and consumers who refuse to go along.
Expect Blackouts, Higher Prices
The lie of the day is from the EPA: Carbon capture will pay for itself (thanks to IRA subsidies). No, it won’t even with subsidies. Expect blackouts and a higher price for electricity.
For discussion, please see Biden’s New Carbon Capture Mandates Will Cause Blackouts, Increases Prices
Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert
Also note Biden’s Solar Push Is Destroying the Desert and Releasing Stored Carbon
Experts suggest the mad rush to convert desert to subsidized solar panels may be releasing mass amounts of stored carbon while simultaneously destroying archeological sites in the process.
EPA Awards $50 Million to Group that Says Palestine is a ‘Climate Justice Issue’
On May 23, I noted EPA Awards $50 Million to Group that Says Palestine is a ‘Climate Justice Issue’
The Inflation Reduction Act strikes again. The beneficiary is a group of radical nut cases. The loser is you, the taxpayer.
In the Name of Progress, Biden Will Take Away Your Truck
On March 22, 2024, I noted In the Name of Progress, Biden Will Take Away Your Truck
And finally, please consider Biden Wants EVs so Badly That He Will Quadruple Tariffs on Them
Astute readers will immediately notice the title of the last link above makes no sense. It’s not supposed to. But it is exactly what President Biden is doing.
None of this makes any sense.
Pffft to the gaseous regulations that this admin has blown.
Whatta bunch of bull-crap, Farts are now “illegal”
The same people who benefit from the problems are the ones trying to solving it. Good article with references
Are Cow Farts Destroying the Planet? This article is a partial excerpt from the book, Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat, by Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf.
funny stuff.
cows burp and fart. some 40 milluon cows in North America.
question, what did the 140+ million biaon buffalo do 150+ years ago?
oddly enough, climate change strategists point their fingera towards taxable strategies such as tasxing fossil fuels, cows. yet turn a blind eye to the massive amount of methan produced due to himans in cities that poop, and discard millions of food waste, to which the same bacteria that makes a cow fart and burp eat thevleft over food waste produced in inefficient cities…..
they want to control the food supply and have idiots vote them office
Uh, some cities have been trying to change food waste for years. No one is turning a blind eye to it.
Do wild Deer fart? We need to do a study to measure it…..
Cows on pasture is good for the soil but the masses in the big cities eat beef off feed lots. Yikes imagine what plans the food police want them to eat.
Ridiculous…..leave the animals alone.
I wonder how much stomach pain for the cows is involved with this stuff.
Speaking of carbon, how about etanol? John Oliver has an episode on YouTube about corn and in it he notes that ethanol has a 24% greater carbon footprint than gasoline.
There was some discussion of getting rid of ethanol years back but the farm lobby quashed that. I’m surprised Biden hasn’t done anything about this given his focus fighting climate change. He needs farmer votes, I guess.
Maybe in his 2nd term?
Hopefully!
@MISH — have you noticed that the comments are now dominated by people like Michael Engel, Doug78, Avery, blurtman, Jojo, and papaDave?
Have you noticed these commenters frequently get significant down votes, yet that only makes them comment more? Like they have no shame. More to the point Soros isn’t paying them to persuade other people with convincing arguments — rather he is paying them to constantly post stupid and divisive hate speech. If these people were honest, and they see they are regularly getting -15, -20 ratings from others, they would at minimum curtail their own comments if not rethink their positions. Instead, they double down on hate speech and divisiveness.
Temporarily blocking them until my next browser or PC reboot is just that – temporary. Pretending these political agitators are legitimate commenters isn’t fooling anyone.
People who regularly get 10, 15, 20 **UP** votes are treated like they are liars. People with 10, 15, 20 down votes are tip toed around like they have credibility. The blog host sets the tone and environment of his blog.
Meanwhile Mish, you keep quoting horrid, media outlets. Some used to be widely respected back in the distant past, but no more. Today they are regularly caught posting half truths and in many cases outright false statements that they know are false but fit their propaganda goals.
You did some great work when you were younger, but its bad for everyone’s mental health not to have a meritocracy. To pretend like hopelessly discredited losers (media sources and commenters) should be treated with the same respect as those who are honestly trying to understand the chaos around them.
You can create better ways to block political agitators. You can stop quoting CNN, NPR, BBC and other propaganda outlets.
.
The last month or so, I would describe your blog as a mental health hazard. if others want to smoke 3-4 packs of cigarettes per day, that’s on them. Their health care costs should also be on them. Restaurants that do not cordon off smokers get patronized less and less. The same applies to our mental health. Some of the more frequent commenters are just plain bad news.
“Safety and Efficacy of 3-Nitrooxypropanol”
“Show me the money and i will show you the outcome.” Read recently that publisher Wiley retracted 11,000 peer reviewed papers.
Dr. Chris Martinson: “According to new research” is code speak for “some stuff that was fraudulently produced by someone for money” until proven otherwise.
Getting the drift? The FDA approved Aduhelm, despite 10 of 11 advisory committee members stating it didn’t work. Three of them resigned over the approval. Comirnaty was approved by the FDA with no long term studies.
I don’t know anything about Bovaer, but i would want to see the raw data from an independently funded study, which isn’t corrupted by the funder.
“….but i would want to see the raw data from an independently funded study, which isn’t corrupted by the funder.”
Tens, to hundreds, of “independently funded” studies. At least a fair share of them conducted by people no more a priori likely to mindlessly fall for childish “like, tech and, like, the future” hype than Good Ol’e Uncle Ted (Kaczynski) was. Over, at the very least, a good bit more than one full human lifespan of exposure to a truly large, representative (and voluntary) population.
From RFK Jr.s website: “A Boston-based ag-biotech startup recently raised $26.5 million to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions” via the development of a “methane vaccine.” Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Gates, led the financing round.”
The company said:
“ArkeaBio’s vaccine will provide an innovative, cost-effective, and scalable solution to reduce the world’s livestock methane emissions, which currently generate the equivalent of 3 Billion Tonnes of CO2 annually and represent 6% of annual Greenhouse gas emissions.”
So big pharma comes in to save the day, creates a digestive suppressant that prevents the animal from digesting the food it eats. Ozempic for cows(ozempic paralyzes the stomach and is banned in Europe.)
WHAT COULD GO WRONG???
Yes, it all def doesn’t make sense. They’re either stupid or trying to ruin us.
Beef will make u sick. Our brain decays when we age. The brain thrives an vitamins
C, D and especially: B6, B12 and folic acid. The brain needs marine fat from : seals, mackerel, salmon, herring… and kelp. Without B vitamins marine DHA doesn’t work. Our eyes binge on DHA. Sugar causes insulin resistance that starves the brain from nutrition. High homocysteine level causes brain shrinkage, memory loss and dementia. Impaired vasculars starve our brain, cells and muscles. Moderate exercise improves health. Radical sport ==> u are gone
Thanks as I had a 32 oz porterhouse and unlimited gravy fries at the North Star Topeka KS steakhouse last night. $64 which is cheaper than any place in Kansas City. My brain should be the size of a pea this am.
U can eat a 32 oz porterhouse occasionally. Feed your guts with fiber with real food, not junk, and your brain with marine oil plus vitamins, especially B. The brain’s decay needs a decade or two. What u eat in your 40’s will be observed in the 60’s. People suffer from dementia in their 60’s. It gets worse in the 70’s/80’s. Some elderly brain bangs the skull’s walls, going downstairs, after shrinking to a tennis ball size. The cost of dementia, heart attacks and cancer, chews up gov budget and people’s savings. It takes time and a strong will to fight addictions caused by the food, pharma and the medical industries.
I think i’m doing well however I do appreciate your advice and you’re cool in the way you present it. I actually have made improvements, I act do eat more veggies and have a huge garden and don’t drink much anymore. Honestly i’m lucky to still be alive for sure.
I don’t eat 32oz of “meat” (red meat, chicken and fish) in a whole week!
that why you dont bench press over 400lbs when you’re almost 60 with no steroids and have 19″ arms. Not bragging but it is what it is. However…….I started lifting in grade school so i’m nothing special really it was just the result of decades of work. The meat def helps I can feel the difference.
Photo or it’s not true!
Take a pill. Literally, any vitamin pill can give you all the vitamins you need.
Fruits and veggies. B12 daily and D during winter.
“…The product works by stifling some of the chemical reactions that produce gas in the rumen of cows…”
How does this drug affect digestion in the cow’s other three stomachs? Cow digestion is quite complex. I wonder if this pharmaceutical will result in higher numbers of LDLs (left displaced abomasums). An LDL occurs when the abomasum, the cow’s fourth stomach, moves from its normal position to the left side of the abdominal cavity. This happens when the abomasum fills with gas and fluid, causing it to enlarge and become displaced. LDLs are quite common in dairy cattle. They often require a visit from the vet. The vet will moderately sedate the cow, flip her over, maneuver the abomasum back into position (externally), and stich it to the abdominal wall so it stays in place.
They need to leave things be…..good grief.
If elected, and if Trump spends the next few years locked up in upstate NY Clinton jail, VP Glenn Youngkin might run this country for 12 years. The Nov election is a race between : Gamala/Biden vs Youngkin/Trump, unless the D elect Michelle.
Dems might swap out Biden for Whitmer at an open convention. They don’t want to be compelled to elevate the Cackler (Harris). Whitmer would win Michigan.
Another reason for us to buy our beef from the Amish. Grass fed beef.
You vill eat zee bugs, own nothing, and be happy.
If you think Trump is going to save you from such meddling in our food supply then you haven’t been paying attention. Trump defers to the interests of Corporate America and they are all in on this green washing scam. These corporations don’t care if Bovaer will make you grow a third testicle. It’s always money over people.
Many of the dupes in the MAGA movement, which is the main audience for Mike’s blog, are not aware that Donald Trump lifted the federal ban on Gain of Function research in late 2017. That led directly to the Covid pandemic. Moderna, whose CEO was major donor and close buddy of Trump’s, just so happened to have a “vaccine” ready to go when Covid struck. Look at who Trump picks to run important agencies. His first handpicked FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, left his post in summer 2019 to take a cushy job with Pfizer, lining his pockets with Big Pharma money after being their rubber stamp at the FDA for two years. Just two months later the Ecolab/Wuhan scientists intentionally released the Sars-Cov-2 virus into the wild leading to a windfall in profits for, guess who…Pfizer. Trump’s second FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, was another revolving door scumbag and he took a job with Moderna in early 2021. That’s called corruption and it’s how Trump operates. He’s no better than Biden.
That must have been quite a bucket of koolaid you had this morning. Conttray to popular belief it doesnt cure TDS, just makes you crazier.
MAGA? What is MAGA? Men against G++++ Assholes like you?
The MAGA folks need to stay on their front porches in their rocking chairs, with their hounds, hooch, bibles and guns waiting for the fireworks show when the coasts are incinerated. Prob got a half hour on them to enjoy.
Maybe you have forgotten that Trump promoted Hydroxychloriquine, which would have obstructed Operation Warp Speed, except that Rick Bright and Janet Woodcock conspired to block its use through an EUA confining its use to in hospital only.
Do you really think that matters? Trump also suggested that yat people inject themselves with bleach. The man is a buffoon that throws a bunch of darts at the wall hoping something sticks. The bottom line is that Trump started the fire. He doesn’t get any brownie points for flicking a few drops of water at the flames.
Of coarse it matters. Dr.s Fareed and Tyson treated Covid patients with HCQ and not one died. Trump was aware of HCQ due to a letter from Dr. Zelenko, who had good results using it on his high risk Covid patients. The bottom line is that Trump recommended HCQ because he wanted to help people. The people behind Warp speed wanted it blocked as it would have blocked their agenda of mass vaccination.
Trump did not suggest people inject themselves with bleach. Listen to the followup question and Trump’s answer.
Next they’ll be pressuring cows to give up their Dodge Charger Hellcats for Teslas.
Wild animals produce an incredible amount of methane through digestion so if we replace cows with wild ruminants then the net effect would be zero so there is no reason to do it.
Not to mention: They don’t do it just because. If it wasn’t beneficial; not just for them directly but also for the environment they are stuck in for future generations; they would not do it.
Competitive evolution results in efficiency. Not just for the immediate generation, but for future generations; of all species which contributes to the ecosystem any given methane producer is evolved for, as well. It does emphatically not result in systemic mistakes which “needs” middlebrow “agribusiness” “investors” on the make and their lobbyists and “representatives” to “help” “correct” them.
Now, if farm cattle raised on artificial feed were much larger methane emitters than wild relatives in nature; modifying the artificial feed a bit could at least conceivably make some sense. But that hardly seems to be the case. Rather the opposite.
Wild animals are not much of a problem because there are 70% fewer of them today compared with 50 years ago. Though they were small in numbers to begin with.
In the entire mammal kingdom, only 4% are wild. Humans represent 32% of all mammals. Our livestock, mainly cows and pigs, make up the remaining 64%.
“In the entire mammal kingdom, only 4% are wild. Humans represent 32% of all mammals. Our livestock, mainly cows and pigs, make up the remaining 64%.”
Per weight?
I suppose anything is possible, but per raw headcount, I have a hard time imagining neither human nor farm animal populations adding up to more than the combined count of rats, mice and all the other rodents.
Heck, aside from perhaps a sterile “farm” used to raise edible raw chicken in Japan, is there even a single livestock farm anywhere which does not count more rats and mice than it does livestock?
Also: Unless America’s rural youth truly has completely rolled over and traded all else for meth addiction and nothing but; they probably still blast more ground squirrels every darned year just for kicks, than there are people in the entire Midwest.
And even if the Israelis really do manage to indiscriminately drop enough bombs to erase the last human from Gaza, even they will likely run out of bombs before the last rat is carpet bombed out of there.
It’s awfully disingenuous for nestle to claim they have climate goals when the company has a long history of decimating surface and groundwater sources, then putting it into plastic bottles for an obscene level of profit.
Spot on. My VERY small community near Mount Lassen, through the work of a neighbor, STOPPED NESTLE from emptying our Ground Water. He found it by spotting a technicality in the permits. 100 TRUCKS per day were going to be traveling up and down HWY 44.
Cows will mostly die off in the future when cultured meat becomes a reality.
If you want red meat w/o additives try bison. Bison can’t be contained like cows. They graze in pastures.
Costco sells 40oz of ground bison (90/10 ratio of meat to fat) for $19.99 ($7.99/lb). Delicious!
Bison isn’t like beef. There’s not enough fat for good flavor. The steaks aren’t tender. The taste isn’t bad but beef is a lot better.
That’s what happens when animals free range. They burn off their fat.
The beef you love so much is probably penned up 23 hours a day so it can be nice and fat for flavor.
“That’s what happens when animals free range.”
Tell that to the Iberian black hoof pigs stuffing themselves on acorn nuts…..:)
Technically; on a large enough scale; you are no doubt correct: It’s really a matter of what one considers “free range.” Genuinely unmanaged herds living in the wild, will breed until food supply limitations prevents them from becoming obese.
On “free range” _farms_, OTOH, herd sizes are often managed externally; by the farmer; in a way that optimizes for meat’s taste to paying humans. Which means the animals can have plenty of opportunity to stuff themselves despite ranging rather freely.
They add fat (I believe it is beef) to bison to compensate. Same with Venison and other low fat game animals.
Hahaha… AI can’t even solve captcha… all this is is a tool – like a screw driver… there is NO intelligence… there never will be
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/30/why-artificial-intelligence-keeps-getting-dumber/
This is related to The Three Pillars of Bullshit https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/the-three-pillars-of-bullshit
Beano for the cows?
They will be shooting cows next. Wipe them all 0ut. These people are evil nuts!
The Greens want there to be much less beef and dairy. (They favor veganism.) Learn to love soy, tempeh and tofu. So much for stroganoff, which is made from two of those disfavored products.
A side benefit is that all this agriculture change will “release” a lot of farmland from production, which can go to Biden’s 30% by ’30 program, and to the vast increase in ‘the buffalo commons’ devoted to prairie chickens, sage grouse, buffalo, antelope and other wildlife.
Climate insanity is an economic distortion that suppresses prosperity. It’s not about the temperature, it’s about control.
I asked the Papa guy 5 times.
We are at 400PPM co2
Why do plants stop growing and begin withering at 350ppm co2.
Why do they grow best at 1200 – 1400 ppm co2.
Why do greenhouses and weed farms supplements carbon in their greenhouses?
Plants grow better with more carbon.
We 100% depend on plants for food.
And the problem is?
Read about Deccan and Siberian Traps and continental wide lava outpourings and the carbon signature of massive coal fields burnt and the massive greenhouse gasses released in the eruptions. Note the levels of carbon in the atmosphere at the time and the temperature.
It took 100,000 years of massive unprecedented eruptions for the temperature to go up?
Climate hoax is fake.
It’s all fake.
Obey
Lol! What a f*cking liar you are! I have answered you 5 times, but you are the one who will not answer back. Why should I bother with you anymore if you will never answer my questions?
Plants do not begin to wither and die at 350 ppm. That’s total bs. Yet you won’t admit it.
Photosynthesis has been shown to continue in some plants at levels as low as 50 ppm. Though for the vast majority of plants, 100 ppm is the point where photosynthesis will stop. 150 ppm -170 ppm is generally considered to be the minimum level for plant growth.
As proof of this, CO2 levels have ranged from a low of 170 ppm to a high of 300 ppm for the last 3 million years (until 1880). According to you, all the plants should have died. I keep asking you why all the plants survived what you call certain death levels of CO2 for the last 3 million years, but you never answer me. Why won’t you answer?
And for the last 10,000 years, when mankind learned to grow crops and as a result, our population went from 5 million to 1.5 billion in 1880, CO2 levels were remarkably stable at 280 ppm. Why were we so successful at growing crops for 10,000 years with 280 ppm CO2? According to you, there should not have been any crops. Care to explain?
All the plants that exist today have evolved and adapted to CO2 levels of 170-300. That is the normal level for them. It’s clearly not a level where they will wither and die. So you are totally full of sh*t.
Mankind had raised CO2 levels from 280 ppm in 1880 to 425 ppm today. And they will keep going up by 2.8 ppm per year (or more). So CO2 levels will increase to 500 ppm by 2050. And they will keep rising after that.
So why are you worried about levels below 350 ppm? Even if we stopped all emissions today, it will take over a hundred years to drop back to 350 ppm, because CO2 stays in the atmosphere so long.
Why do we add CO2 to greenhouses? Several reasons. One is because during the daytime, CO2 levels in a greenhouse can drop below that 150 ppm level as the plants can absorb most of the CO2 present in a closed environment. Without adding additional CO2, plant growth can slow or stop at that 150 ppm level.
Second, adding extra CO2 (above the open air 425ppm) can stimulate more photosynthesis. But more CO2 is useless if you don’t match it with more sunlight, water, and soil nutrients.
Third; more plant growth from more CO2 causes more carbohydrates in the plants, but at the expense of proteins, minerals, and vitamins. This has been documented over the last 50 years. More CO2 is partly to blame for the food we grow having less nutrients and more carbs. More CO2 n the atmosphere is slowly turning our previously healthy food into junk food.
In addition; as CO2 warms the atmosphere, crops can suffer. Each 1C increase in average growing temperatures, reduces crop yields by 5%.
Also; climate change is increasing drought in some areas, and flooding in others; as well as increasing pests and disease. All of which reduce crop yields.
And finally; more CO2 is warming the planet and rapidly changing the climate. When this happens naturally, over tens of thousands of years, life can adapt to the slow changes. But we are currently causing 10,000 years of warming jn 200 years. That is too fast a change for life to adapt. Which is one very big reason that animals (70%), birds (30%), insects (50%) , fish (50%) are declining in numbers. (Yes, there are other reasons as well.)
You are needlessly worried about plants. What about all the other life forms that are being affected?
Fast Bear believes climate change is not real. You believe climate change is real. I believe the climate changes but so what as long as we can adapt quickly enough.
Yep. Climate has been changing naturally for billions of years. And life adapts to that change because natural change happens slowly enough that life has time to adapt. When the change happens quickly (like to the dinosaurs) life has trouble adapting.
The problem now is that the change is NOT natural and slow. It is being forced by man’s emissions. And it is fast. We have reversed 6-8k years of natural cooling in just 200 years with our forced warming. And we are accelerating that warming. And nature is struggling to adapt.
Yes, man is already adapting. We are raising sea walls, roads, and bridges. Places that never needed air conditioning are now scrambling to add it. Insurance companies are raising rates or refusing to insure. Building codes are being rewritten. People living in areas of risk are being moved or voluntarily moving.
Again, all I can do is recognize what is happening and profit from it. Because I cannot change it.
What is shocking to me is how many people here are willingly blind to it. Most deny it is even happening or that we are responsible for it. Others realize it’s happening, but blindly believe we can fix it before it becomes far worse.
I seem to be one of the few here who realizes that this is a problem that we cannot easily fix; that it’s going to get a lot worse; and that we are going to suffer economic and health impacts as the years roll by.
And I intend to profit from that.
We are still in an Interglacial PapaDave so it can swing the other way. Our hottest moment was 8000 years ago and not now. Given the choice between glacial cold and a couple of degrees more, I choose warmth.
Close. 8000 years ago, global temperatures were similar to today. They then began to cool as a result of Milankovitch cycles, which will continue their cooling phases for many thousands of years into the future. Without man’s influence, we would have another mile of ice over New York in about 50,000 years or so.
But man did have an influence. We began clearing forests to grow crops, and adding small amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. Then we learned to cultivate rice and add methane to the atmosphere. As a result, we began to slow the natural cooling that was already taking place. Which was a good thing, as we did not need the climate to cool significantly. So by 1880, the climate had cooled a little less than it otherwise would have. And CO2 levels did not drop much at all for those years, when they normally would have. They remained around 280 ppm for those 10000 years.
But then we began burning fossil fuels. Which was a wonderful thing which supercharged economic growth, and helped raise living standards. But the downside was the emissions. Since 1880 we have raised CO2 levels from 280 ppm to 425 ppm. This rapid rise in CO2 has overwhelmed the natural climate cycle and we have raised temperatures by more than 1c already. And we are set to hit 3c before the end of this century.
The impact of ever rising temperatures is going to impact our economy and our health.
Climate is not static It got colder after the 1930’s. It managed to do that with increasing CO2. In the 1970’s there were concerns about another Ice Age, as Mish had noted here, complete with magazine covers.
This year in May, Los Angeles only had one day of above average daily temperature high. The record high for June 1, was in 1879.
As usual, you give useless examples that mean nothing. It rained yesterday in Houston. There was a foot of snow in Minneapolis. Etc.
Rather than single examples you need to look at thousands of examples over many decades. That will reveal the trend.
For example: in the last 5 decades, the number of record high temperatures worldwide are twice the number of record lows. Because overall temperatures have been increasing for those 5 decades. And accelerating each decade.
They’ll ban regular cows and force everyone to buy electric cows.
Do android cows dream of electric pastures?
They dream of NI-CAD batteries that allowed them to rest more.