English
Deutsch Livestock and Climate Change
World Watch Magazin
A just-released report in the November/December issue of World Watch Magazine has concluded that livestock raising is responsible for at least 51 percent of global warming.
Authors Dr. Robert Goodland, former lead environmental advisor to the World Bank, and World Bank research officer Jeff Anhang built upon “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the report published in 2006 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
They calculated for areas not previously considered and updated others, including the lifecycle emissions of farmed fish production, CO2 from animal respirations , and an actual corrected tally that resulted in a more than doubling of the reported number of livestock animals on the planet.
Livestock’s methane emissions were also factored in as being 72 times more heat-trapping in the atmosphere than CO2. This represents a more accurate increase from the original FAO calculations of 23 times the warming potential.
Even so, the researchers cautioned that the sum of their estimates was minimized, and therefore the 51 percent emissions total is still conservative. In a question and answer article on the website vegclimatealliance.org, the authors concluded:“It is now possible to understand that the dramatic expansion of the livestock sector in recent decades may imperil humanity, and that there may be no way to manage the climate risk of either the food industry or the world at large other than by replacing livestock products with better alternatives.”
Our thankful appreciation, Dr. Goodland, Mr. Anhang, participating scientists and World Watch Institute, for your work showing that meat consumption is clearly the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Let us ever more swiftly replace animal products with their planet-cooling veg alternatives to preserve our ecosphere and all lives.
Read “Livestock and Climate Change,” World Watch Magazine [FREE PDF]
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Tags: Agriculture, animal, Bank, Change, Climate, contributor, December, Dr. Goodland, Dr. Robert Goodland, ecosphere, FAO, Food, Jeff Anhang, lifecycle, livestock, Magazine, Meat, Mr. Anhang, November, Organization, sector, Shadow
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