It's a gas
We all recognise the dangers of global warming and climate change. Or, at least, those of us who're not Donald Trump.
And we recognise the role of methane as a greenhouse gas
. We also recognise that cattle farming is a major contributor to methane emissions to the atmosphere.
I don't think that any of this is too controversial in terms of widely-accepted, fact-based observation.
Enter Burger King, with a whimsical
YouTube advert extolling US farmers to do more to reduce cow farts. And the dudgeon, it is high.
Leaving aside the farmers' ire, I was bemused by the backlash from academics, seemingly led by Prof. Frank Mitloehner of the University of California Davis, who got quite grumpy over the fact that most methane emitted from cows comes from the front end rather than the back end.
Seriously, what difference does it make, other than that farts are funnier than belching? Prof. Mirthless considers this to be trivialising the problem, but if it gets people talking and thinking about it, even in a light-hearted way, is that such a bad thing? The emissions come from one end or the other of the cow. The main issue is to reduce methane emissions, irrespective of the orifice from which they originate. (pipe)