Ongoing moves to cut methane gas emissions from domestic livestock, like cows and pigs, fail to take into account the sheer volume of feral animals now populating countries like Australia, one MP has said.
Keith Pitt, the Nationals Party member for Hinkler, said current measures or proposals to curb flatulence or belching from livestock needed to consider the science. [bold, links added]
“There is 10 times the number of feral pigs in Australia than domestic,” he told The Epoch Times.
“This is an underhanded attack on our resources sector and agriculture. If it was about science, well, the flatulence for feral animals should be included, but it’s not,” he said.
Australia contains some of the world’s largest feral animal populations—partly due to the lack of large land predators—that do not come under government moves to curb methane emissions.
The country is estimated to contain 400,000 wild horses, five million donkeys, 150,000 water buffalo, one million camels, and 24 million feral pigs—in comparison, the United States contains just six million feral pigs.
Livestock the Focus of Methane Emission Cuts
Scientists blame the livestock industry as the number one agricultural source of emissions.
According to the University of California, Davis, methane accounts for around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases, with a single cow estimated to belch around 220 pounds of methane a year.
Methane is considered worse for the environment than carbon dioxide.
In response, the New Zealand government is considering charging farmers a tax based on the amount of methane emitted by livestock herds, including cows and sheep.
The pricing system will be set by a central authority called the Climate Change Commission, which could see farmers pay around $15,000 to $50,000 annually or risk cutting the size of their herds.
“No other country in the world has yet developed a system for pricing and reducing agricultural emissions, so our farmers are set to benefit from being first movers,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The move follows in the wake of the U.S. Biden administration that reiterated its November 2021 pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 percent as part of the Global Methane Pledge.
“We urge all countries to reduce collective anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 percent by 2030 from 2020 levels,” the White House stated following a Sept. 29, 2022 meeting with Pacific leaders.
Meanwhile, the Australian Labor government stated it was considering the proposal as part of its net-zero push but was yet to lock in a solid commitment.
A Further Warning on Net Zero
Pitt also warned the Australian government’s push for net zero would weaken manufacturing in the country.
“It’ll have an enormous impact on the price of electricity, and it will put it up and make our network less reliable and unstable,” he said.
Pitt also said there was a real risk of blackouts if there was a serious push to reduce emissions by 43 percent by 2030.
“I think the risk exists right now, and I think it will get worse coming in the summer, particularly if there are early closures of reliable baseload power stations,” he added. “And it’s not just our domestic risk. Right now, we need Australia to be as strong as possible given what’s happening around the world.”
Read more at Epoch Times
Its all based upon Junk Science and Politics blame the Livestock but not the feral pigs running loose shows you that their using Politics no Science to make their stupid rules
There is a very good reason that feral animals are not considered in methane emissions. They don’t pay taxes. Never forget that one of the three motivations for starting the global warming movement was an excuse for new taxes. It also appears that these taxes will be set by non-elected bureaucrats.
Of course, they go after our food sources and not the feral hogs, because they cannot blame them on humans.
No gas at any concentration can warm the Earth or the climate. CO2 and methane are incredibly minor, at the parts per million and parts per billion level. Also, the IPCC “science” claims it is these gases in the upper tropical troposphere that warn the surface and the climate. Since they know that this is junk science, they claim the “science” is settled and forge ahead with their wide-ranging antihuman policies, targeting our energy, food and standard of living. De-Westerniizing the free world and making us all 3rd world countries is their goal, along with a massive depopulation goal, which they started with Scamdemic I.
Surely Australia is heading for disaster with “Climate Change.” Fake science, fake media, fake governments who only want power and control as we saw in past 2+ years. No plans for growth, threw money around like confetti during Covid while destroying businesses and now come up with this utter nonescence.
I cannot begin to understand why feral animals are not culled like in past decades but this attack on our food sources is yet another ploy for hunger, famine and population control via WEF. The attack on food is worldwide, like Holland and through out Europe plus the attacks on food manufacturing facilities in the US plus many others. Here and NZ are in the throes of communistic dictatorships.
So according to some pinheads Livestock contribute to Global Warming/Climate Change dispite the fact that Livestock have been on this Earth for eons but Feral Pigs do not? Who do they think their kidding with this load of Malarkey? Yeah the usual bunch of Animal Rebellion jerks pouring milk on the floor and they should be made to mop it up