Beef Is Tonight’s Sustainable Dinner Option You may be surprised to learn that beef production in the U.S. has a lot of positive impacts on the environment, including right here in Colorado. By 5280 Promotions & Sponsored Content You’ve heard the one about the cow who burped methane, right? It’s true that he (or she) released greenhouse gas into the air, but the idea that cows’ belching is a significant contributor to the climate change crisis? Not so much. Unlike carbon, which persists in the atmosphere for centuries, the life cycle of methane is only about 12 years. That’s resulted in “a misinterpretation of methane’s role in warming the climate,” according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. (Scientists associated with the University of Oxford are even pioneering a new way of measuring emissions that accounts for differences between these short- and long-lived pollutants.)