Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions from their burps

Re:Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions... by belorn on Friday August 20, 2021 @06:09AM (#28244466)

Increasing the amount of seaweed in our diet would be a huge boon to the environment. As illustrated in the top story on HN right now which is about N2O, synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is a primary contributor to both climate change and eutrophication.

Personally I would prefer to see a major carbon tax on synthetic fertiliser and products that get produced from them (naturally this include corn feed meat). That way people would have an economic incentive to select the kind of food that has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions... by cies on Friday August 20, 2021 @06:11AM (#28244474)

I'd say a carbon tax only works when applied fair and square to all product, regardless of who buys them. The market will fix the problem, only when given the right incentives.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Feeding cows seaweed cuts 99% of greenhouse gas emissions... by belorn on Friday August 20, 2021 @06:31AM (#28244574)

Since synthetic fertiliser are mostly produced from fossil fuels it should be effected by a generalized carbon tax.

But I am not sold that one have to apply a carbon tax to everything at the same time. Eutrophication has turned a major portion of the baltic ocean into the dead sea and if left to continue we won't have anything left alive there for a very long time. On that environmental crisis alone synthetic fertiliser pollution need to be addressed. That it also is derived from fossil fuels and a major contributor to global warming is all more reasons to focus carbon taxes on synthetic fertiliser specifically.

[ Parent | on HN ]