Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent Prime Minister Scott Morrison a “cow fart” in a jar, as part of a message regarding the damaging effects of methane.
The gift is designed to draw attention to the devastating climate impact methane, a greenhouse gas generated largely by farmed ruminant animals, has on the planet. It arrived with a letter – and a cheeky dig at the prime minister’s infamous act of bringing a lump of coal to Question Time when he was treasurer in 2017.
In their letter to the PM, PETA said: “We figured, since you love sharing destructive, archaic stuff in Parliament, you’d appreciate a new show-and-tell item that’s also wreaking considerable havoc on the planet: a jar of methane.”
“Cows and sheep release huge volumes of methane – a greenhouse gas up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Each year, a single cow will belch almost 100 kilograms of methane – and Australia is home to over 25 million of them. That’s not to mention our nation’s 72 million sheep, the average one of whom emits approximately 13 kilograms of methane per year.”
PETA notes that a 2022 study published in science journal PLOS Climate concluded that rapidly phasing out animal agriculture worldwide has the potential to stabilise greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 per cent of CO2 emissions this century.
The campaign is ambitious, but makes sense given PETA’s motto, which in part reads “animals are not ours to eat”.
