It is generally believed that cars and trucks and airplanes contribute an ungodly share of greenhouse gases. This has recently led many right-minded people to buy a Prius or other hybrid car. But every time a Prius owner drives to the grocery store, she may be canceling out its emission-reducing benefit, at least if she shops in the meat section.
How so? Because cows - as well as sheep and other cud-chewing animals called ruminants - are wicked polluters. Their exhalation and flatulence and belching and manure emit methane, which by one common measure is about twenty-five times more potent as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide released by cars. The world's ruminants are responsible for about 50 percent more greenhouse gas than the entire transportation sector.
Excerpt from Super Freakonomics by Steven D.Levitt and Stephen J.Dubner
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