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Got milk: 3 percent of greenhouse gases from milk production Jeremy Hance mongabay.com April 21, 2010 Methane—a potent greenhouse gas—makes up half of the dairy sector contribution to greenhouse gases, while nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide make up significant portions. The FAO produced a study in 2006 that linked 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions to the world's 1.7 billion livestock. But the figure has recently been questioned by air quality expert Dr. Frank Mitloehner from the University of California-Davis. Mitloehner, who has received research money from the agriculture commodities groups, says that the FAO's study measured the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of livestock—including emissions from growing livestock feed, animals' digestive emissions, and processing meat and milk into food products—while the report only looked at the direct emissions from transportation, i.e. the burning of fossils fuels. A quarter of the world's land is currently used for raising livestock, while one third of the world's cultivated land is used to grow crops to feed livestock. For example, the cattle industry is the primary cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: causing 80 percent of deforestation between 1996 and 2006. Related articles Just how bad is meat-eating for the environment? 
(03/28/2010) Meat is booming. In the past thirty years, livestock production has increased threefold. In many parts of the world where incomes are expanding, meat, once a delicacy, is now eaten regularly and voraciously. But what are the environmental impacts of this 'livestock revolution'? Two recent studies look at the global impact of the livestock industry, one alleges that its environmental impacts in relation to greenhouse gas emissions has been overestimated, while the other takes a holistic view of the industry's environmental impact.
Amazon cattle ranching accounts for half of Brazil's CO2 emissions (12/12/2009) Cattle ranching accounts for half of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions according to a new study led by scientists from Brazil's National Space Institute for Space Research (INPE). World needs a 10% meat diet to fight global warming (09/12/2007) Cutting world meat consumption by 10 percent would have a substantial impact on greenhouse emissions, say doctors writing in the health journal The Lancet.
Tags: greenhouse gas emissions methane livestock climate change carbon emissions green jeremy hance environment greenhouse gases cattle ranching United Nations Environmental news index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements:
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