A fart tax?

Malcolm welcomes this,
wafting from Alice Fordham
in today's Times:

... in Estonia, the cows at least must get used to the idea that there is an environmental consequence to every pleasure. Even belching. Even flatulence. Farmers there have received tax notices for cows' emissions. While it is true that cows produce 350 litres of methane and 1,500 litres of carbon dioxide daily, farmers have pointed out that no such levy exists elsewhere in the EU. One can see their point. Even the most eloquent environmentalist will struggle to persuade a cow to stop doing what comes naturally.

All we need now is to fit a meter.

Would it work also with the adolescent male?

In which case, we could have educational off-setting. As opposed to pedagogical upsetting.

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On the other hand, this is a serious topic.

Some "experts" reckon cow-farts are 23 times more damaging to the environment than cars. Their farts and their manure generate a third of the world's methane emissions, along with some hundred other effluents, icluding ammonia which causes acid rain. And that's not Malcolm: it's the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Eat beef: save the planet.

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