Word of the day: ruminant
I’d never come across this word until recently when I was reading an article about the climate crisis.
I checked it out and found that a ruminant is an even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. The ruminants comprise the cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives.
Ruminants produce a huge quantity of the greenhouse gases which significantly contributes to global warming namely, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). On an average, a cow produces around 70–120 kg CH4 per year which is 23 times more potent factor to climate change than that of CO2.
So, if you’re a meat-eater and want to protect the environment, think of eating less beef and lamb as compared with pork and chicken.