(HorizonPost.com) – Bill Gates is targeting methane emissions coming from cows in his latest investment in an Australian startup, according to The Epoch Times. The startup reportedly plans to reduce emissions through a lab-grown feed additive, but some experts are questioning its practicality.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures LLC (BEV) is being led by Gates as part of a $12 million phase-2 seed funding for Perth-based Rumin8, which produces synthetic livestock. The supplement allegedly reduces gas and indigestion in cows and thus can be used to lower methane emissions.
Rumin8 managing director David Messina, according to Smart Company claims that the laboratory results are “excellent” and says they indicate that they will be able to supply the products “at a commercial price point.”
Livestock is reportedly responsible for climate change as it makes up one-third of man-made emissions. One study suggests that giving cows this supplement, which is made from seaweed, will reduce emissions by 98%.
Some experts suggest that methane emissions should not be a sole priority, the outlet reports. Peter Castle, in a write-up for The Epoch Times, says that the efforts to reduce these emissions will “outweigh the benefits,” noting that the half-life is methane is roughly 10 years and an estimated 600 million tons of it are both produced and consumed every year.
“The methane produced by cattle, for example, comes from carbon in the food they eat, which in turn comes from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Castle writes, concluding that it is an overstatement to say that cattle emissions are “anthropogenic” because “it has been happening for all of known history.”
Rumin8 has reportedly raised $25 million which is to be used for commercializing operations.
This news comes as another startup specializing in “geoengineering” has openly emitted sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to combat climate change, according to a report from American Pigeon.
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