From red seaweed to climate-smart cows: New Zealand leads the fight against methane

It is not exactly glamorous work. Measuring sheep farts is smelly, time consuming and expensive.

 There are five million cows in New Zealand, producing a lot of methane.

But for Dr Suzanne Rowe, a scientist who is breeding strains of sheep that emit less methane than regular flocks, there is nothing more important she feels she could be doing.

“New Zealand has really become a global leader in this space and there’s a lot of buzz around at the moment – it’s hugely exciting,” she says.

The release of methane gas from New Zealand sheep and cattle accounts for one third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, the single largest contributor in the country.

Read the story from The Guardian by Eleanor Ainge Roy - “From red seaweed to climate-smart cows: New Zealand leads the fight against methane.”

How did we get into this energy mess, and how do we get out of it?

Let's start with the smelly, dead chicken the Turnbull government is seeking to hang around the Shorten opposition's neck.

The public could care less about the source
of power as long as the lights remain on.

In a variation of the children's party game, pass the parcel, or, should we say, pass the chicken, Malcolm Turnbull and his Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, are seeking to impose on their political opponents responsibility for an energy mess, including crippling power bills.

This is self-serving politics.

Culpability for two decades of policy paralysis going back to the Howard government's failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol – setting the tone for an aimless debate on climate and energy – rests with the political class of all stripes, including the hapless Greens.

Read the comment by Tony Walker in today’s Melbourne Age - “How did we get into this energy mess, and how do we get out of it?”