Brewery's effects on the Environment

How much do you think major breweries contribute to global warming? I know regulation of CO2 is coming in the future, and that brewing produces a lot of it. Does anyone have any exact numbers about the extent of CO2 produced by major breweries? I mean they have to be pumping out more than most factories right?


MOD EDIT (olllllo): Sorry for the confusion. Most of the Generalized Global Warming debate has been moved to https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=28887

This tread seems to be more about green brewing, specifically the New Belgium link. These posts were mistakenly folded into the mix and are now restored.

hmm, do you think the amount of people on the earth exhale more co2 than breweries?

Brewing is almost carbon-neutral. Most of the CO2 is from the fermentation process and barley absorbs CO2 while growing.

jbreiding said:

hmm, do you think the amount of people on the earth exhale more co2 than breweries?

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All the more reason for this.

That reminds me of one of my favorite authors:

"Why do so many people talk about the extinction of the human race as if it was a bad thing?"

jbreiding said:

hmm, do you think the amount of people on the earth exhale more co2 than breweries?

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No, because humans don't create CO2, we just filter it out and don't utilize it.

I won't pretend to know what I'm talking about here but I'm betting that the effect of the production of CO2 by the worlds breweries is very minimal.
I would guess that the energy used to produce heat in a brewery would have more of an effect on the environment than the CO2 released from fermentation.

But then again- what do I know???

id be more worried about people with 93 GMC Jimmy's with leaky gas tanks and no catalyct converters....

Just found this:

http://shop.newbelgium.com/sustainability.php

That is probably the most relevant post (including my own) to the OP.

If you are looking for your posts, I move them to the Let's talk Global Warming thread located here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=28887

Let's keep this one on topic as it relates to Breweries and have the other for general debate.

olllllo said:

If you are looking for your posts, I move them to the Let's talk Global Warming thread located here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=28887

Let's keep this one on topic as it relates to Breweries and have the other for general debate.

Click to expand...

With all due respect, my post said"Manufacturing creates more co2 than BREWERIES" Did that not relate directly to this topic?