Who Had Cow Fart Vaccines on Their 2024 Bingo Card?
A detailed review of the realities of methane and its impact on the environment.
The last time I wrote about cow farts, it was a warning that the Environmental Protection Agency was likely to use methane emissions as an excuse to target our livestock herds in the globalist War on Meat.
Of course, I am frequently covering the topic of vaccines.
Today, I have a chance to blend two of my favorite topics into one post. A start-up company has raised over $26 million to produce a vaccine to reduce methane emissions from cattle.
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. “Reducing methane emissions from the agricultural sector is one of the most pressing challenges in today’s fight against climate change,” said Chris Rivest, Chairman of the Board at ArkeaBio and partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
“ArkeaBio’s approach using innovative vaccine technologies will create effective and massively scalable solutions to reduce on-farm methane emissions, leaving them well-positioned to redefine the agricultural landscape in the years to come.”
One of the firms investing is Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which was founded by Bill Gates in 2015. It pitched in $12 million.
Arkea Bio has raised $12 million in seed financing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures to develop a vaccine that will reduce methane released by cattle, which accounts for about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The company says a methane vaccine could be integrated into existing farming practices. Separately, DSM has started construction on a facility in Scotland that will produce 3-nitrooxypropanol, a methane-reducing feed additive for cattle.
You would think that in the face of the staggering failure of the covid vaccine, scientists and researchers would be more circumspect. I guess the urge to solve a problem that really isn’t a problem, while enjoying moral righteousness of being a climate cultist, is too compelling.
I am going to take a few moments to review biology and geology, underscoring the complete folly behind this venture. To begin with, before the Great Plains slaughter of buffalo, our continent had vast herds of cattle generating methane. Yet, the climate was still quite habitable all around the globe.
Methane production is inherent in how cattle digest the grass they eat, building up fat and muscle mass for us to enjoy as steaks and burgers.
Methane is produced by archaea that make up a small proportion (up to 4%) of microbial biomass in the rumen. As the largest of the cow’s 4 stomach compartments, the rumen makes up 12-15% of the animal’s body mass and houses an anaerobic community comprised of diverse bacteria, protists and fungi. These microbes degrade and ferment lignocellulosic roughage that the animal cannot digest.
Major microbial fermentation products consist of short-chain fatty acids, which are absorbed by the animal, as well as CO2 and H2, which are converted by methanogens to CH4 waste gas. Some undigested material is regurgitated into the buccal cavity, or mouth, where the cud is chewed and swallowed again. Other undigested material passes into the abomasum, where mammalian digestive processes take over before entering the lower intestinal tract.
Tampering with a digestive process that has been refined over millions of years of evolution seems unwise.
Next, let’s look at the current concentration of methane in the atmosphere. Interestingly, the value is presented in parts per billion.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (around 1750) the methane concentration in the atmosphere has increased by about 160%, and this increase is almost entirely caused by human activities. Since 1750 methane has contributed 3% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in terms of mass but is responsible for approximately 23% of radiative or climate forcing. By 2019, global methane concentrations had risen from 722 parts per billion (ppb) in pre-industrial times to 1866 ppb. This is an increase by a factor of 2.6 and the highest value in at least 800,000 years.
Let’s math a little bit. 1866 ppb = 1.866 part per million = 0.0001866%.
Granted, methane is a potent greenhouse gas. However, I argue 0.0001866% is not contributing to global warming to any significant degree…like our Sun is.
However, ginning up concern about methane is one way for eco-activists to impose even more burdensome regulations on dairy farmers and ranchers, while forcing the rest of us to less nutritious “protein alternatives”.
Let’s look at what happened 800,000 years ago, when methane was “at the highest value”. Life seemed to be pretty good.
The last time there was so much carbon in the atmosphere, these early humans were surrounded by spectacular megafauna.
“Deer, bison, mammoth, hippo and rhino grazed the river valley, surrounded by more dense coniferous forest,” Science News notes. “The estuary provided a rich array of resources for the early humans with edible plant tubers, seaweed and shellfish nearby, while the grazing herds would have provided meat through hunting or scavenging.”
The last time time methane proved to be a problem for life on this planet may have been over 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period (just before the age of dinosaurs). One theory goes that an upwelling of magma in the area that is now Siberia incinerated the coal deposits there. It was the largest continental volcanic event in Earth’s history.
The volcanoes spewed so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere the planet warmed by between 45 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now that, my dear Legal Insurrection reader, is a true climate crisis.
Methane hydrate, formed in the ocean where methane is hit with the enormous pressures under the seas, is thought to have contributed to this substantial warming. As the waters warmed from the continued volcanic action of the Siberian Traps, there were 2 pulses of methane released as the methane hydrate warmed.
Global warming triggered by the massive release of carbon dioxide may be catastrophic, but the release of methane from hydrate may be apocalyptic.
As far as I am concerned, any global climate research focusing on trace gases is a complete waste of money. The Sun, volcanoes, and asteroid impacts are the entities that truly influence climate on a devastating scale.
It is clear our “regulators” will not hesitate to use “subject matter experts” to promote pseudoscience and implement policies that fit their narrative, lining their pockets while enhancing their power. Therefore, I wanted to make sure everyone had a good look at realities of methane and its true effect on the environment.
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Comments
Trying to eff around with Mother Nature again – what could possibly go wrong?
Step 1 — Cow fart vaccine.
Step 2 — Exploding cows.
Step 3: Profit!
Another colossal waste of money which will most certainly be detrimental.
Everything you wanted to know about cow farts and then some
Termites create most of the methane worldwide by eating about a third of all biota yearly, should we fumigate the whole planet?
“It is clear our “regulators” will not hesitate to use “subject matter experts” to promote pseudoscience and implement policies that fit their narrative, lining their pockets while enhancing their power.”
And it’s a win-win if the peasants can be made to suffer as well.
I fear you are wasting your time. Real scientists discuss facts, data, theories, etc., all while remaining skeptical the the nth degree. Climate zealots (including those calling themselves “scientists”) only concern themselves with fear and panic in their quest for personal fame and more funding. In other words, you cannot argue with a deaf man.
Theologians call prophesies that fail to come true “self-disconfirming.” The fact this term is so fitting for the many failed predictions of climate alarmists over the decades helps demonstrate that “climate change” is a religion, because even failed prophecies fail to shake the faith of the true believers. Real scientists would look at these failures, and determine from them that there’s something wrong with their theories.
“Religion is about faith, science is about doubt.”
Biggs2021 (at the Barnes Brief 12/17/22)
Many failed predictions lol, I think you’ll find many of those predictions were either gross distortions by climate deniers or just poor journalism. For example the claim that we were going to go into an ice age was almost completely made up by morons, it was one paper out of many others which said the exact opposite
Like, wow man … What a gasser!
The only reported side effect of the vaccine is mad cow disease.
lefty will attack anything to accomplish its agenda of chaos
It seems to me that the only way to reduce methane emissions from cattle is to kill the archaea that produce it. Will the vaccines cause cattle’s immune systems to attack and kill the archaea? How will that affect the remaining biota? The uptake of nutrients by the cattle? Messing with the biota of cattle is likely a way to cause them to become under-nourished with the potential to slowly starve them to death.
“I guess the urge to solve a problem that really isn’t a problem, while enjoying moral righteousness of being a climate cultist, is too compelling.”
That, and billions of dollars.
“Granted, methane is a potent greenhouse gas. However, I argue 0.0001866% is not contributing to global warming to any significant degree…”
“It boggles the mind that I could be certain that I know what caused a half degree (C) rise in the last hundred fifty years. It’s simply not large enough to find a physical cause.”
Climate Statistics Professor Dr. Caleb Rossiter of American University
Now you see the end goal here.
Today’s weenies connive to create a vaccine to keep cows from farting methane. Our parents’ generation would’ve contrived an industrial process to collect methane cow farts and harness them as usable energy.
Back in the ’50s, our goal was “Progress, our most important product.” Today our goal is’ Progressivism, a mental derangement.
Cows produce methane naturally with their endosymbiotic bacteria. This is just not smart.
That is something to ruminate about.
Will cow meat even be safe if contaminated by these vaccines? Will it still be delicious? Will there be any labeling of meat from food animals given such drugs?
“You would think that in the face of the staggering failure of the covid vaccine”
The covid vaccines were highly successful, that is fact.
” The Sun, volcanoes, and asteroid impacts are the entities that truly influence climate on a devastating scale.”
The energy output of the sun hasnt changed particularly. It cant possibly explain the temperature curve
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/four-decades-and-counting-new-nasa-instrument-continues-measuring-solar-energy-input-to-earth/
Oh yes so many volcanoes have exploded recently, again not a viable mechanism to explain the temperature curve. Also eruptions tend to be associated with cooling not heating due to hazing so double fail.
Any asteroids nope. So basically you got nothing
I use the term visionary for people like this. My definition of visionary is someone who offers a solution to a problem doesn’t exist to people who never asked for it and won’t use it. Much like our CEO’s of the car business and their self-driving vehicles. All in the same bucket.