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Article: Bad breath.(reducing livestock methane emissions)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Ecos
- Article date:
- April 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Steve Davidson digests our latest strategies for reducing livestock methane emissions.
By belching their way through digestion, ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep produce 13% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. In New Zealand the figure is 46%, in stark contrast to the 3-4% produced in other developed nations. Much of this gas is methane, a by-product of fermentation in the rumen (main stomach) of the animal, by microbes called `methanogens'. Globally, livestock produce 80-103 million tonnes of methane a year.
As a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, Australia must limit its annual greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities during ...