Solving the Greenhouse Gas issue

At a presentation this week, someone said that computers emit more greenhouse gases than the airline industry as a whole.  About 4% of all gases are from the IT industry apparently.

Cows emit more gas than computers however. 

The numbers are horrific:

• at any time, 23 million cows are grazing across Europe
• between 9% and 12% of the energy that a cow consumes is converted to methane
• methane is 23 times more damaging to the environment than CO2
• another deadly factor are cow farts which contain nitrous oxide, 231 times more damanging to the environment than CO2
• an average cow gets rid of around 280 litres of gas a day, and 1,000 litres of dung (enough to create 6kw of heat)
• farting cattle contribute 4% of global warming, according to German Scientists from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart
• cows produced 46% of Scotland's methane emissions, whilst New Zealand almost missed its Kyoto targets due to farting sheep and cows which contributed 60% of the country's carbon footprint, more than the sum of all New Zealand's industries as a whole

So, should we get rid of all cows?

No way. 

And so I was pleased to see, according to the BBC, that farmers in Argentina have solved the bovine gas emissions challenge with this cunning new invention:

Apparently, it captures all the gas all day long and stops it being released into the atmosphere.

Fantastic.