Reduce 70% of greenhouse gases with seaweed

If we add 2% seaweed to animal feed, we can cut Methane emissions by more than 70%.

Emissions from livestock account for more than 44% of total methane emissions from human activity. This type of emissions is 36 times more dangerous than CO ₂ for global warming. The average can reduce a huge amount of gas - about 3.1 billion tons - from the digestion of livestock feed.

3.1 billion tons of methane is equivalent to the amount of CO2 emitted each year of the entire EU European Union. In the case that 70% of this gas can be cut, it is equivalent to 2.17 billion tons of methane gas. And the amount of methane is reduced to the equivalent of all India's CO ₂ emissions in a year.

Methane gas is 86 times more harmful than CO2.

Because of the dangers of methane for global warming compared to carbon dioxide, this study has brought a breakthrough in controlling global warming. To clarify the dangers of emissions to Earth's atmosphere, scientists have released the Global Warming Potential (GWP) index for each of the different emissions based on energy absorption and time exists in the atmosphere of that gas. According to GWP scale, CO ₂ achieves 1 point while Methane gas is 28 - 36 points.

In fact, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that in the last 20 years, methane gas has reached GWP of 86. It means that in short time Methane gas has a warming ability. 86 times more global than CO2.

Usually many people think that pets emit methane through "bombing" mainly, but in fact it is not a big problem, more than 90% of emissions are in the process of belching of cattle, 10 The remaining% comes from "bombing".

Therefore, the solution to reduce methane is to limit belching or reduce the amount of methane produced during belching. Scientists studied the potential of seaweed for two years and found that seaweed called Asparagopsis taxiformis was capable of reducing up to 99% of methane in experiments in 2015.

That is a great solution, but can it be applied in practice? The team from James Cook University, Queensland has experimented on cattle and pointed out that it is possible to reduce a large amount of methane emissions with a very small amount of seaweed in the diet.

Seaweed will be the future of humanity.

"When applying the diet supplemented with 2% seaweed for sheep flock, the amount of Methane released within 72 days has reduced by 50 - 70%, indicating the feasibility of the study" - ABC News quoted Rocky De Nys, a member of the research team.

Scientist Michael Battagia explained the effectiveness of seaweed because the bromoform (CHBr ₃ ) combination reacts with vitamin B12 to prevent Methane formation. "Bromoform has destroyed enzymes used by intestinal bacteria that produce methane gas, a product of digestion," Battagia said.

In order to produce enough seaweed for all cattle in Australia, it needs about 6,000ha of area but if compared to the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is not permeable.

According to the research team, the program will be implemented on a large scale at Queensland farms until the middle of next year.