Headline from (where else) The Guardian:

McDonald’s seeks to cut cows’ methane emissions
Three-year study by burger giant aims to reduce pollution from flatulent livestock

So now methane, a natural gas, is a pollutant? Pollutants normally bring to mind pesticides, heavy metals and Polly Toynbee pronouncements rather than what happens after a particularly excellent curry.

McDonald’s has long been the butt of jokes about what goes into its burgers, but now it is to spend thousands of pounds investigating what comes out of its beef cows.

Anyone want bet that the only real outcome of this is that the cost of burgers goes up?

The fast food chain, which uses beef from 350,000 cattle a year for its burger meat, is to conduct a three-year study into methane emissions from cattle on 350 farms across Britain. Gas produced by flatulent livestock accounts for 4% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. It is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse agent.

So how did methane become pure carbon? It used to be CH₄ when TheEye was at skule but times change, obviously. There is no doubt that methane is a potent greenhouse gas and there are certainly advances which should be researched, particularly in looking at new methods to reduce the methane that comes from our landfills, but this is ridiculous. Cows eat plants, making them flatulent. That’s nature. However, it is highly doubtful that any changes will come from this “ground breaking project” except a few companies making a substantial amount of money our of McDonalds and the customer paying for it.

The scheme is part of a broader attempt by Steve Easterbrook [CEO of McDonalds UK] to rebrand McDonald’s in the UK as a more socially aware and environmentally friendly organisation.

In other words, they want to look good, much like the way Al Gore lives a massive carbon lifestyle but purchases carbon offsets (from his own company, of course). Pathetic.