Google Hires Goats to Mow The Lawn

[Earnest Cavalli]

Google Hires Goats to Mow The Lawn

Though it can certainly afford the finest in mechanical lawn mowing technology, Google has turned to a team of goats to tend the fields around its offices.

"At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard," the latest entry on the official Google blog [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.html] reads.

"This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we've rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we're not 'kidding')."

Despite the horrible pun, Google's plan seems sound. A team of 200 goats, a single border collie for herding and a week of idle time is all it takes to keep the company's grounds green and nicely coiffed.

Of course, that presumes none of Google's employees are now spending their days attempting to spook the goats into fainting [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg]. Coding search engines and webmail servers is fun, but terrifying adorable, demon-eyed livestock is an irresistible temptation.

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[bookboy]

I don't think they use the fainting bait goats unless there are serious risks of predators around, although it is fun to scare them.

 

[lizards]

ha im going to do this

 

[dmase]

I had a teacher one time that told me men should never talk about goats... wait its sheep anyways i'm sure there were also words of infinite wisdome mixed in but thats what i remeber. I think that Goat related accidents will increase 5 fold in the area surrounding the headquarters, this is of course using my ability to see in to the future.

 

[The Shade]

Truth be told, I'd considered this same approach to tending to my sizeable lawn. (Though with considerably fewer goats.) It was better than using that nasty ol' lawn mower. Of course, with the absence of a dog to watch over them, it could turn ugly.

So instead I just use an electric mower around the house and let the rest of it grow out. Whatever.

Still, I like Google's style.

 

[cobrausn]

Never mind the massive volume of C02 emitted powering all the millions of computers that use google to look up things such as 'what time is it' (524,000,000 results) and 'what i like about you' (522,000,000 results).

I'm sure all that idle googling has no CO2 footprint at all.

Losing battle and pointless gestures if you ask me.

 

[JMeganSnow]

How is this a "low-carbon" option? Two words: Goat Farts.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Er... did they do the math? I mean, it might go either way, but I'd think that the CO2 production of 200 goats over the course of a week and a single mower in the course of two hours tops isn't as one-sided as they seem to think it is.

*sigh* Ninja'd.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Er... did they do the math? I mean, it might go either way, but I'd think that the CO2 production of 200 goats over the course of a week and a single mower in the course of two hours tops isn't as one-sided as they seem to think it is.

*sigh* Ninja'd.

Yeah but the goats would do that anyways, whereas a mower only emits fumes while running.

So to be a math nerd

A=ammount of CO2 from goats
B=ammount of CO2 from running lawn mower

Not using goats equation

A+B=

Using goats equation

A=

and

A+B>A

unless of coarse your lawn mower runs off of CO2 insted of emmiting it.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Yeah but the goats would do that anyways, whereas a mower only emits fumes while running.

You're taking the existence of the goats as a given, which is a fallacy. If these goats were not generating profits by "mowing" lawns, they probably wouldn't exist. Not to mention that they produce methane and large amounts of solid and liquid waste, both of which are much nastier "pollutants" than carbon dioxide.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

These goats come from grazing grounds, they're raised for their meat, their milk, or their skin. They already exist. It's pretty carbon neutral.

 

[iJosh]

Haha. Can they get any lazier.?

 

[megapenguinx]

There will goat poop everywhere....

 

[Eric the Orange]

Yeah but the goats would do that anyways, whereas a mower only emits fumes while running.

You're taking the existence of the goats as a given, which is a fallacy. If these goats were not generating profits by "mowing" lawns, they probably wouldn't exist. Not to mention that they produce methane and large amounts of solid and liquid waste, both of which are much nastier "pollutants" than carbon dioxide.

Well wether or not there eating googles lawns in particular they would still exist, unless they were planning on slaughtering them all if they weren't. There are more uses for goats than just lawn care.

And while yes urine kills plants, fecies is a fertilaizer.

But yes, I don't have the cross examination numbers of which by itself would pollute more. So on a purely 1 to 1 bases I can't really say for sure.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

They're not doing this to be green, they're just saying it's "green" because they wanted an excuse to get a bunch of goats.

"Hey Google, isn't this a waste of..."

"YOU FOOL, IT'S TO SAVE THE EARTH!"

 

[Sigenrecht]

CO2 production that comes out of the multitude of orifices that stock animals have contributes to 18% of the world's Greenhouse Gas problem, right below Energy Production's 21% and just above the 14% Transportation causes. Clearly, Google is trying to cause a new era of goat supremacy where the goats begin a genocidal war with their bovine brethren, wiping each other out and cutting emissions across the board.
Clearly.