Is methane misunderstood?

[Ponadr]

There's this issue that's been bothering me for quite some time:

The US has a population of 95 million cows that release enormous amounts of methane. However, several hundred years ago there was a population of between 30 to 60 million bison in America that produced just as much methane per animal.

Maybe it's telling us the whole methane argument is a lot more complicated than we think. I have some ideas why this is, but what do you guys think?

 

[SapphireLightning]

If the US relied on those cows, and didnt cut down hectares of forests in other lands that never had bison, I could see the argument. Uruguay for instance has more cows than people (12 million cows in a land that used to be dense forest with 0 bison) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30210749
Hard to find data on all of south america, but it is a good start.

 

[Forest Nymph]

Sapphire Lightening is correct. It's not all that complicated. Cows are exotic in some ecosystems while bison are always native, plus mass deforestation globally, equals false equivalency.