Saturday, February 24, 2007

Whether you agree that human activity on earth is polluting the atmosphere and triggering a warming of the globe, the facts are in - cattle rearing contributes more to global atmospheric, water and land pollution than automobiles.

After first publishing this news last week, thousands of people have read this article on the Internet and dozens have written to me asking that I offer more evidence of the claim.


I appreciate the feedback, and so I have collected some more facts about cattle pollution from a number of sources on the web.

- Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tons in 1999/2001 to 465 million tons in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tons. [source: United Nations report, Dec., 2006]

- When emissions from land use (such as production of feedcrops and grazing land) and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9% of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65% of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure. [United Nations, Dec 2006]

- Animal agriculture produces...37 percent of the methane [in the atmosphere] annually. [NewsTarget]

- Waste from farm animals in the United States alone is 130 times greater compared to humans. Agricultural runoff [containing animal feces and urine] has killed millions of fish, and is the main reason why 60% of America's rivers and streams are 'impaired'. - [source]

Heard enough? I have. I'm just going to eat less meat and it come from an organic, 'environmental' farm. We have plenty of those around here in Santa Cruz County, California.

Labels: Animal Farm Pollution, Animal Farming, Animal Pollution, Cattle Emissions, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gases, Greenhouse Warming

posted by Googe | 5:36 PM | 0 comments links to this post