Beef and Greenhouse gas emissions

Originally posted by Bad wolf
True.

Now all that needs worrying about is the large amounts of methane the cows produce...

Some folks are bringing back old breeds of cattle that are 'made' for eating grass. Taste better and would produce less methane since they are not fed so much filler.

Originally posted by lepomis
Some folks are bringing back old breeds of cattle that are 'made' for eating grass. Taste better and would produce less methane since they are not fed so much filler.

Which brings us back to my original point that most of the changes required are at the production and not the consumption end of things.

Does anyone happen to know the total CO_2 emitted due to manufacture of low power light bulbs? I use these things and have 100 Watt equivalent bulbs which use 20 Watts, so that means that CO_2 emissions due to my lighting uses about 20% of that due to "traditional" bulbs during their operational life time. But it's quite possible that all the advantage and more is eliminated by the bulbs manufacture (and transport) being highly energy intensive. It is also possible that the manufacturing process generates other pollutants that may not be climate forcing, but have other environmentally deleterious effects. I understand that the EU is making these things compulsory in Europe (except for uses where only filament bulbs work) and it'd fulfill my general view of these people's competence if it turned out it was one of those ideas which cause a frying pan to fire transition.

Edit: Wikipedia gives a partial answer (CFL's are better), but as they point out there's an issue with Mercury vapour if they aren't disposed of properly and it's difficult to get figures on this stuff. They give a sort of total price argument to embody all the energy inputs, which CFL's win, but not by as much as you'd think.

Originally posted by DeepThought
Which brings us back to my original point that most of the changes required are at the production and not the consumption end of things.

Does anyone happen to know the total CO_2 emitted due to manufacture of low power light bulbs? I use these things and have 100 Watt equivalent bulbs which use 20 Watts, so that means that CO_2 emissions due to my l ...[text shortened]... to embody all the energy inputs, which CFL's win, but not by as much as you'd think.

I use CFL's only because I have yet to change one in 5 yrs. With the incandescent ones I changed them serveral times per year. There is a page on the EPA website that describes how to dispose of the CFL's and the clean up routine that you must follow if you break one. I do not know the energy difference in making them.