Activist: “Your cows are putting carbon into the atmosphere.”
Farmer: “Where did they get it?”
Activist: “What?”
Farmer: “The carbon. Where did the cows get it from before they put it anywhere?”
Activist: “From… eating grass?”
Farmer: “From eating grass. And where did the grass get it from?”
Activist: “From the soil?”
Farmer: “where did the soil get it from?”
Activist: “From the air?”
Farmer: “Yes. The grass pulled it out of the air last spring. The cows then ate the grass. The cows breathed and fart some of it back out. It simply went back into the air where it came from.”
Activist: “But it’s still going into the atmosphere.”
Farmer: “It’s going back into the atmosphere where it came from. Its circulating as nature designed. There’s a difference between a thing going somewhere and a thing circulating. You’ve described a circle created by nature and you’re frightened of it.”
Activist: “Then just don’t have cows.”
Farmer: “Carbon doesn’t need cows to circulate it. Without the cows the grass dies off in the autumn. It decays and rots where it falls releasing carbon. The carbon goes back into the air either way, just without the benefits of anyone getting fed in the middle.”
Activist: “It can’t be that simple.”
Farmer: “It’s just nature doing what nature does. It’s grass, cow, breath, grass. Or it’s grass, rot, air, grass. Same circle, fewer dinners. If that’s complicated for you I’d stay away from the water cycle. That one’s got clouds in it. Just look up. Your thinking could drown you, seas rising and all that bullshit.” Uninformed people used to be referred to as green. They still are.
Based on @samahoole on X