Cow alert

From time to time I have a moan about the Epsom Common Association running cows on Epsom Common. Partly because I do not care to walk with cows, partly because they blow a lot of bad gases into the air, big contributors to both global warming and pollution. I am pleased to be able to report that yesterday's Guardian ran a full page story about all the ammonia produced by cows, mainly via their manure.

I offer a slightly more complicated map than that offered by the Guardian, taken from reference 1, a map which reminds us that cows are not the only farmed animal producing bad gases. We just have to eat less meat and dairy products. On which point, I can claim to be quite good on the meat front, but have to admit to being quite bad on the cheese front.

Incidentally, one of the hot spots on the Guardian map is the Protestant part of Northern Ireland. Has the Guardian missed something? While one of the hot spots on my map is down to all the poultry and pigs in Norfolk, home to the famously Catholic dukes of same.

Reference 1: Drivers for spatial, temporal and long-term trends in atmospheric ammonia and ammonium in th eUK - Yuk S.Tang, Christine F.Braban, Ulrike Dragosits and others - 2018.

Reference 2: https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/705/2018/acp-18-705-2018.pdf. A source for reference 1.