Wildfire smoke has again spread across large swaths of the United States, some of it settling into our Montana valley. As I watch it drift across the landscape, I have questions. [some emphasis, links added]
For most of my adult life, I have heard that cattle are harming the climate. The public warning is often reduced to a crude slogan: Cow flatulence is destroying the planet.
Cattle actually release far more methane by belching than by farting. That distinction is easily missed by people who lecture ranchers about animals they have never raised.
Some of those lecturers also live on a scale few ranchers could imagine.
One billionaire owns a home in this region whose construction consumed enormous quantities of timber, stone, concrete, copper, fuel, heavy equipment, transportation, and energy. And that was before anyone heated, cooled, maintained, or traveled to it.
He is free to build it. His lectures about someone else’s cattle still deserve scrutiny.
This is not an argument against climate science. Cattle produce methane. Human activity affects the environment. Clean air, healthy soil, responsible forestry, and wise stewardship all deserve serious attention.
So do perspective, proportion, and credibility.
Our family partners with local ranchers to graze cattle on our property. They evaluate the grass, moisture, acreage, herd size, grazing time, and recovery period. They know which pasture can carry cattle and which one needs rest.
Responsible grazing reduces excess vegetation while improving grass for cattle and wildlife.
We have also logged portions of the property, removing unhealthy and overcrowded trees. We cannot prevent lightning or command the weather. Wildfires will happen. Thoughtful grazing, logging, and forest management can still reduce fuel and risk.
That is good old-fashioned stewardship.
Protecting land does not always mean leaving it untouched. Sometimes it means tending what has been entrusted to us. That principle ought to provide common ground rather than another excuse for a climate battle.
People with dirt under their fingernails rarely spend much time posting about sustainability. They are too busy practicing it. Their environmentalism is not a brand. It is a responsibility.
The land corrects arrogance. Rain may not come. Winter may arrive early. One careless decision can damage a pasture for years.
Farmers and ranchers understand stewardship because their livelihoods, families, and futures depend on it. They have skin in the game.
Cattle do not recognize Christmas, birthdays, or weekends. They require attention every day.
Yet ranchers must stop that work to gather records, attend hearings, answer regulators, call attorneys, and explain livestock to people who have never raised an animal, repaired a fence in January, or waited anxiously for rain.
Every hour spent defending ranching is an hour not spent ranching.
The activist loses nothing by being wrong. The bureaucrat still gets paid. The rancher loses time, money, and sometimes the ability to pass the operation to the next generation.
The absurdity does more than insult the people producing our food. It interrupts them.
Read rest at The Blaze
The many millions of buffalo that once roamed North America released almost as much methane as domestic cattle do today on this continent.
Methane remains atmosphere for only 12 years and therefore cannot be a cause of much climate warming. Methane absorption wavelengths highly overlap water vapor absorption wavelengths across multiple regions of the infrared (IR) spectrum.
The result: The global warming effect of methane is too small to measure in a given year