Which contributes more to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, cars or cows?
According to a study released a month ago by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it’s cows, hands down:
the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent — 18 percent — than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
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. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
The report projects that global consumption of meat from cows and other farm animals is projected to raise from 465 million tons in the next 40 years.
The report says that methane from ruminants’ digestive system is responsible for 37 percent of methane in the atmosphere. Methane is 23 times more powerful as a contributor to global warming than carbon monoxide.
Livestock now uses 30 percent of the surface, when pastureland and the farmlands used to raise their feed are combined.
Closer to home, the pollution produced by farm factories producing meat and milk are pushing the fragile geography of the state to the brink:
In California, the nation’s leading dairy state, 1.7 million cows on 2,100 dairies produce 65 billion pounds of manure a year.
What can you do? Stop the madness. Quit eating meat. It’s that simple. The earth cannot sustain itself indefinitely as billions of people depend on these farm factories where living, sentient beings are “processed” like inanimate objects.
It is barbaric and it is killing the planet.
