Measuring Cow & Pig Emissions Goes to New Heights

Cow manure and belching pigs could be having a greater effect on climate change than scientists previously thought, and it took a special methane-sniffing satellite to figure it out. 

Data from the satellite helped Harvard University researchers determine that livestock emitted more methane than oil and gas did in 2004, according to a new study — the first to use high-resolution satellite data to study methane emissions in the U.S.

Methane emissions from livestock production in the U.S. were 40 percent higher than federal government estimates and 70 percent higher than methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in 2004, according to the study.

Measuring Cow & Pig Emissions Goes to New Heights