Livestock and Climate Change
Livestock and Climate Change
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf
Worldwatch / State of the World
2009
Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are...cows, pigs, and chickens?
The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change".
A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.
Whenever the causes of climate change are discussed, fossil fuels to pthe li st. Oil, natural gas, and especially coal are indeed major sources of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other green house gases (GHGs). But we believe that the life cycle and supply chain of domesticated animals raised for food have been vastly under estimated as a source of GHGs, and in fact account for at least half of all human-caused GHGs. If this arg ument is right, it implies that replacing live-stock products with better alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. In fact, this approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations — and thus on the rate the climate is warming than actions to replace fossil fuels with renew able energy.