LIVE SCIENCE - Dairy farms produce huge amounts of potent greenhouse gases. But now, scientists say these farms can slash their methane emissions by covering cow-poop ponds with a giant tarp. Scientists recorded an 80% reduction in the methane emissions of a dairy farm in California after its owners installed a "digester" — a system...
DISCOVER MAGAZINE - Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, capable of trapping more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Indeed, it is thought that between 20 and 30 percent of global warming since 1750 can be pinned on methane emissions alone, and agriculture is one of the...
EARTH.COM - A year-long experiment on a Central Valley dairy farm has confirmed that sealing manure lagoons under gas-tight tarps can trap roughly 80 percent of the methane they would otherwise release. By capturing the gas and sending it to fuel markets, the system turns a potent climate threat into a usable resource. Led by...
INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is over 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide when trapping heat over a 20-year period. It accelerates global warming much faster than CO2. In California, dairy farms are among the largest sources of methane, especially through how they handle manure. A new study from the...