A face mask that can neutralise cow burps has won a £50,000 competition judged by the Prince of Wales.
Students from the Royal College of Art (RCA) were given the task of designing projects that would help reverse the damage humans are doing to the climate.
So now, their methane-catching devices could end up being fitted to poor cows to reduce the carbon hoofprint of British beef.
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Sky News reports: Out of 125 submissions, four teams of RCA students and alumni have been chosen as the winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab competition, receiving £50,000 in funding to help further develop their ideas.
Among the four winning designs was a harness for cattle to convert their methane emissions into CO2 and water vapor in real time, created by design group Zelp
Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere – so cutting it is a powerful way to slow warming in the short term.
The world’s 1.5 billion cattle, each producing up to 500 litres of methane a day, are significant contributors to global warming. The majority is emitted through their belching, but some also comes from their flatulence.
“We can all have good ideas,” said Sir Jony Ive, award judge and chancellor of the Royal College of Art.
He called it “reassuring, particularly facing the overwhelming challenge of climate change, that we can all contribute
ideas that could evolve into valuable solutions”.
