What percent of global greenhouse emissions can be attributed to animal agriculture? Enough to definitively deem animal agriculture as the biggest contributor of climate change. The greenhouse gases produced by both livestock and their byproducts make up fifty-one percent of all global greenhouse emissions. Accumulatively, the animal agriculture industry is responsible for climate change and the overall devastation of the environment.
What is global warming? For starters, it’s real, and its referring to the general warming of the atmosphere and the subsequent effects on the environment. The average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate ever in recorded history over the past fifty years. That should worry you. Most climate scientists, in fact ninety-seven percent of them, are in concurrence that not only is global warming real, but that human expansion of the greenhouse effect is the main cause of climate change (Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: Scientific Consensus”, NASA). The phrase human expansion of the greenhouse effect refers to the contributions made by humans which have greatly increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. AKA, the human activities that are polluting our atmosphere. But what human activity is mainly responsible? Animal agriculture. Livestock is responsible for sixty-five percent of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. (“Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the U. S.”). See, without a demand for meat, leather, dairy, etc. the mass production and exploitation of animals and their byproducts would cease, therefore the blame landing on the deserving, the humans demanding such an industry. This, is what the human expansion part of the phrase “human expansion of the greenhouse effect” means.
So, what about the greenhouse effect part? The greenhouse effect is the exchange of both the incoming and outgoing radiation that warms the earth. This, in conjunction with rising levels of greenhouse gases, results in global warming. There are four primary gases responsible for the greenhouse effect: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Animal agriculture just happens to be one of the biggest producers of the last three. Water vapor, however, is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, and the concentration of water vapor rises with the temperature of the atmosphere, creating the strongest known positive feedback loop. This feedback holds the potential to nearly double the warming effects of carbon dioxide solely (“A blanket around the Earth,” NASA).
Through human expansion, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by greater than one third since 1760, according to “A blanket around the Earth,” NASA. Methane, however, is twenty times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. At fifteen times more powerful than methane, and also with two-hundred and ninety-six times the capacity for global warming of carbon dioxide, is nitrous oxide. (“Veganism & The Environment: by the numbers”), and as we’ve already established, animal agriculture is the biggest producer of this one as well.
Forests are constantly being cleared to make room for grazing animals and/or growing their feed, continuously disrupting the water cycle and contributing to the inflation of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. According to Haley Hansel, every second, one to two acres of rainforest are cleared for these very purposes. Animal agriculture is responsible for ninety-one percent of deforestation. (“How Animal Agriculture Affects Our Planet” Haley Hansel). It has been proven beyond doubt, that the clearing of trees has immediate impacts on the climate. Deforestation is arguably one of the most detrimental effects of animal agriculture. Trees do much more than just absorb CO2 and other greenhouse gases, they also help regulate the air temperature above them and play a vital role in the water cycle. (“Deforestation in the Tropics Affects Climate around the World, Study Finds” Mcsweeney, Robert). When forests are cleared, fewer greenhouse gases are being absorbed and the trees are no longer able to regulate the rate at which the water vapor returns to the atmosphere during the water cycle.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of increased greenhouse emissions. In fact, of global, anthropogenic GHGs, or greenhouse gases, approximately eighteen percent could be chalked up to animal agriculture alone, according to the findings of a 2006 study funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (qtd. HSI Fact Sheet: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on the Environment and Climate Change in Brazil). Greenhouse emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, are released at nearly every stage of animal production: the use of nitrogen fertilizers for growing feed, on-farm fossil fuel use, the clearing of forests, as aforementioned, and pasture desertification. Collectively, chickens, turkeys, pigs and cows are the largest producer of methane in the U.S., and the meat, egg and dairy industries are responsible for sixty-five percent of worldwide nitrous oxide emissions (“Veganism & The Environment: by the numbers”). Again, these greenhouse gases are being produced at nearly every level of animal production, easily sealing the claim that animal ag. is to blame.
A few studies have suggested that removing merely one serving of chicken per week from the diet of Americans would reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by as much as taking 500,000 cars off the road (“Veganism & The Environment: by the numbers”). What a tremendous impact we can have for so little! And according to “HSI Fact Sheet: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on the Environment and Climate Change in Brazil,” each year, approximately forty-one million tons of carbon dioxide are emitted from the production of fertilizer for feed crops alone. Meaning, just to so much as feed our food, we are emitting an additional forty-one million tons of carbon dioxide!
Many people have either made the argument, or have bought into the common misconception, that transportation and the emissions given off by all forms of transportation are to be held responsible for global warming. That our cars are the sole perpetrators. While it’s true that thirteen percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation such as road, marine, air and rail (ANIMAL AGRICULTURE TRUTHS), livestock and their byproducts can be held responsible for nearly four times that amount! Fifty-one percent of all global greenhouse emissions are from livestock and their byproducts. If one person were to exchange their car for a hybrid, they would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by one ton per year; whereas if one person simply removed all animal products, or even most animal products, from their diets they would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by one and one-half tons per year (“Veganism & The Environment: by the numbers”). To think we’ve all been told that our “gas-guzzling” cars are the problem, that we should make every effort to carpool, and to use public transportation, when really the issue is what we’ve been putting on our plates! What a reasonable substitution to make!
So what can we do? What must we do? According to a recent study conducted by the Woods Hold Research Center, the consumption of meat needs to be cut down by at least fifty percent per person in developed nations to avoid irreversible climate changes. The most effective and obvious solution to climate change is lessening the demand for animal agriculture by adopting a vegan lifestyle. To subscribe to a vegan lifestyle means abstaining from the consumption, use, and wearing of animal products, as well as the exploitation of animals. Every person that converts to a vegan lifestyle is weakening the demand for animal products, as well as lowering their own carbon footprint, and therefore making an effort to both maintain and avoid insuperable damage to the environment.
It’s projected that emissions from animal agriculture are set to increase eighty percent by 2050. If the demand for the animal agriculture industry is not lessened, the effects on climate change will become much more tangible almost immediately. At nearly every stage of meat, egg, and dairy production, incomparable amounts of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere, contributing heavily to the climate crisis. There is no single industry nor cause that has the devastating effects on the environment that animal agriculture does. Ending the demand for animal agriculture is the only way to reverse both climate change, and its effects. Animal agriculture is the biggest contributor of climate change, and should have our sole attention as we look to the future of our environment.
Originally published 15.10.2019