With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year. Since farming is basically serving the consumer’s demand for food, we should look at our nourishment. We cannot deny that farming has a major impact on global warming. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.Īre cows to blame for global warming? Are cattle the true cause for climate change? Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation." Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Cattle-breeding is taking a major factor for these greenhouse gas emissions according to FAO. In addition, clearing of tropical forests and rain forests to get more grazing land and farm land is responsible for an extra 2.8 billion metric tons of CO2 emission per year!Īccording to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) agriculture is responsible for 18% of the total release of greenhouse gases world-wide (this is more than the whole transportation sector). All ruminants (animals which regurgitates food and re-chews it) on the world emit about two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalents per year. World-wide, there are about 1.5 billion cows and bulls. With a car using 8 liters of petrol per 100 km, you could drive 12’500 km per year (7’800 miles per year). Let’s compare this value of 2’300 kg CO2: The same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is generated by burning 1’000 liters of petrol. Therefore the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2’300 kg CO2 per year. But the negative effect on the climate of Methane is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2. Methane is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2). A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |