I have come across a 409 page report that I think shows some interesting numbers and points out something obvious, but yet not much people think about it. LIVESTOCK. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Livestock industry is generating 18 percent (in CO2 equivalent) of greenhouse gases, this is more than the transport industry! This is due to the other gases Methane and Nitrous Oxide that are contributing to the greenhouse gas effect. Nitrous Oxide is a greenhouse gas that has 296 times the Global Warming potential of C02, and this comes from manure. Methane (23 times as warming as C02) is also a greenhouse gas that is released in the atmosphere from ruminants.
A ruminant is any hoofed animal that digests its food in two steps, first by eating the raw material and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as cud, then eating the cud, a process called ruminating. Ruminants include cattle, goats, sheep, llamas, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeest, and antelope.
Now for the facts:
- Livestock uses 30% of earths entire land surface
- Feed crops for animals occupy 1/3 of all farmable land
- 9% of drinkable water globally is used for these feed crops
- 100% of corn and soybean crops are sprayed with herbicides that are then fed to cattle and humans in the United States
- 30% of corn is sprayed with insecticides in the United States
- 2.1 billion people live in areas with water shortages…water is a scarce resource.
- Since pre-industrial times Carbon Dioxide has jumped about 31%
- Since pre-industrial times Methane has jumped about 150%
- and since pre-industrial times nitrous-oxide has jumped about 16%
Water is going to be the resource to compete for in the near future. With livestock accounting for 20 percent of biomass on earth, providing food and water for the world will become an ever increasing task.
The global population is reaching the tipping point of having too many people on it. The implications of global warming and the population explosion we are currently experiencing will ultimately result in world-wide disaster. It seems to me that we are already at the point of no return in terms of being able to curb global warming. The Kyoto protocol is fine and dandy, but will ultimately do very little to stop the devastating effects that are to come in the near future.
