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| The cow is victorious in release the most energy to the environment |
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Whos more wasteful? -- or -- Who releases more waste energy streams to the environment? A Cow or a Human?
So after doing my last post I became curious of who is more wasteful releases more energy to the environment, a cow or a American citizen. As in who throws away more Garbage being the assumed largest waste stream for the human and manure being the largest waste stream for the cow (garbage being manure for the cow). Off the top of their head I'm sure most people would say that humans are the most wasteful out of all species and release a lot of wasteful energy to the environment. But after noticing that the average cow produces 14.4 pounds of manure per day and the average American citizen produces 4.4 pounds of garbage, I began to think that a cow may release more energy to the environment be more wasteful. To the compare the two candidates I will calculate how much energy can be recovered from the manure and the garbage. Garbage has an energy content of 10,000 BTU/lb totaling 44,000 BTU per person per day. Manure has an average energy content of 8,500 BTU/lb totaling 122,000 BTU per cow per day. Using this simple procedure, an average cow essentially releases wastes (poops out) 277% more energy than an average American throws in the garbage can. Now we will just need to determine the best way to utilize this wasted energy.
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So, this is interesting, but maybe also an example of where quantitative analysis fails us somewhat. Because I think intention matters. Cows produce "trash" as you call it rather naturally. They are not consciously choosing to produce waste--it is part of who they are, an intrinsic part of our being.
ReplyDeleteWe produce "trash," however, largely as a result of the systems we have built, because of some innate needs, and sometimes because of greed or wastefulness. And you don't look at our other "waste" products (our use of energy, our own sewage/wastewater production, etc.), so I'm not sure your analysis really holds up.
I do know that cows produce a whole lot of methane, and environmentalists are looking closely at how our propensity to eat way more meat than we should in the US is bad both for climate change and for our obesity epidemic. But again, this is something rather obscured by quantitative analysis.
It's not always just about the numbers...
Also, the cow manure returns to the earth and fertilizes growth for plants. Human waste ends up in landfills, and depending on the material, could take 100s to 1000s of years to degrade. Not to mention all of the toxic waste that ends up in landfills. I don't know if this was meant to be funny but it could be misleading if taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you and everything that you have said. This post was not meant to be so serious however. I would have to say I have compared apples to oranges on this one. Rewording this post to...Between a cow and an average person, and their primary waste streams, who releases more energy to the environment. Manure being the main waste stream produced by a cow, and garbage being the main waste stream of an average person. So should we just blame mankind for all of this because if we didn't eat beef or drink milk then there wouldn't be these large feedlots or dairies filled with cattle and their manure? Or maybe this sometimes negatively thought about topic can be thought of mankind's continual effort to become more efficient in producing less and less wastes.
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