Global Warming
The effect of animal agriculture on climate change has been vastly underestimated, and in fact  accounts for over half of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This is the claim made by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of a new report called Livestock and Climate Change.
In their study, they discuss how the widely sited 2006 report Livestock’s Long Shadow, compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Committee (Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2006), estimates that animal agriculture accounts for 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and grossly undervalues that sector’s impact. Moreover, they reveal that farmed animals and their byproducts are actually responsible for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or a staggering 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
The United National Food and Agriculture Committee looked at the global impact of animal agriculture and found that farming animals emit more greenhouse gasses than all the world’s transportation combined—that’s all the automobiles, planes, trains and any other form of carbon- emitting transportation. So when you are contemplating how to significantly reduce your carbon footprint, driving less or getting a more fuel-efficient vehicle seems logical and, while that certainly helps, your impact can be infinitely more powerful by reducing or eliminating animal products completely from your diet.
For their report—Livestock and Climate Change, Goodland, who was the lead environmental adviser for the World Bank for 23 years, and Anhang, also an affiliate of the World Bank as a research officer and environmental specialist, found that previous calculations had misjudged and ignored certain emissions sources, and had assigned emissions they deemed to be livestock-related to the wrong sectors. The authors bring to light these inconsistencies through analyses of livestock respiration, land use, and methane emissions.
Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing animal products with soy- based and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. The report states, “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 renewable energy.” They argue that food producers should mount a major campaign to promote the consumption of plant-based foods, including meat analogs.
A recent study by the University of Chicago found that consuming no animal products is 50 percent more effective at fighting global warming than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.
Unfortunately, recognizing animal products for the global warming culprits they are is an abstract concept. Identifying carbon emissions from, let’s say, a car, is much more observable. The fossil fuel gets pumped in and emits from the tail pipe. How much fuel you burn is the calculator of your impact. An animal product sits innocently, concealed in a plastic-wrapped package, with no way to tally its heavy environmental toll.
So how does an animal product come to have such a profound carbon footprint? It’s a combination of factors. Producing animal products wastes enormous amounts of energy and fossil fuel, and emits greenhouse gasses in the process. Throw in the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest for cattle grazing, and you have a recipe for serious impact on climate change.
 Here are the irrefutable facts: Animal agriculture accounts for 65% of nitrous oxide emissions and 37% of methane1. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide. Methane is 23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon monoxide2. Animal agriculture is also responsible for 68% of ammonia emissions3, a leading factor in acid rain. There are about 400 other polluting gases involved in every stage of animal product production, including hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.
|
