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Sgozzy t1_irxau7z wrote

Reply to comment by One-Relative5556 in New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps to reduce emissions by TDYDave2

In all fairness, this is pretty crazy. How do you even measure and quantify that?

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LupusDeusMagnus t1_irxjajl wrote

You can make pretty good estimates by what cows are eating, the number of cows, and their breed.

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marcus_centurian t1_irxhwu9 wrote

There are three ways- a satellite company out of Canada has a GPS style grid of small satellites that has been able to detect methane plumes from space. The other is a mechanical device that uses the RFID embedded in the cow's tag to identify the cow and then measure the methane output. Lastly, you put the cow in a neatly sealed cell and monitor all gases going in and out of the cell.

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Sgozzy t1_is6672d wrote

lol that is sweet. I have all kind of questions about how accurate it would be but I love that people are actually measuring this

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marcus_centurian t1_is66lzd wrote

The whole cell is accurate, but quite expensive and awkward. The ground device is also expensive but not as much and only is cost effective if part of a carbon credit project and the satellites are good enough, but most of their focus is on fossil fuel plumes and other than a proof of concept, they don't seem to monitor cattle on a regular basis, even if they could.

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mattyandco t1_irxnxo3 wrote

You measure a few cows, get some averages and use that average with the number of cows a farmer has.

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