Carbon Dioxide or as it is known by its chemical name CO2, two atoms of Oxygen and one atom of Carbon.
It has been considered as the major source of global warming. Which as a matter of course created by burning of the fuels like oil, petrol, diesel etc.
According to IPCC’s (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) Third Assessment Report1:
- ‘There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities.
- Human influences are expected to continue to change atmospheric composition throughout the 21st century.’
In order to control the climate change, CO2 emissions has to drop to zero by 2100. Why?
Because it raises the average temperature on our Earth. If the Carbon Dioxide emissions continue to rise higher in level as is the trend then, our situation would be similar to that of a toasted bread.
With the continuation of the ecological crisis in the world, even if each and every individual adopted the conservative measures, switching off the lights while not in use, close the taps while brushing, use bucket instead of shower, ride bicycle instead of cars, would that be really enough to save our planet?
There is lot more than just emission of carbon dioxide which many of us had failed to see. According to a report published by the UN, rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases that cars
Which means that grazing cattle will produce more greenhouse gases than cars, trucks, planes, ships combined.
So while on one hand, we all are concerned about the carbon dioxide emissions while on the other hand, livestock sector produces more harmful greenhouse gases.
“The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,”
And on one hand, we are focussing on reduction of carbon dioxide level to zero.
No doubt, that is important as well, but we need not be concerned about carbon dioxide, natural gas and oil production alone but livestock sector as well.
65 per cent of nitrous-oxide which come from the manure.
Cows produces a substantial amount of methane from their digestive process, the cousin of Carbon Dioxide and which according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warms the planet 86 times as much as carbon dioxide. So, if each one of us start riding bicycles everyday instead of driving cars, to reduce the emissions, that, unfortunately, would not be enough. Because, there is more to climate change than fossil fuels.
Livestock’s Long Shadow, a book by Henning Steinfeld, talks about the major role of livestock sector in global warming and also reports that livestock is the leading cause of resource consumption and environmental degradation destroying the planet today.
Agriculture sector is the largest consumer of freshwater. This consumption and the impact of livestock sector on water depletion or water resources is often not understood by us.
30 per cent of the earth’s entire surface has been used up by the livestock, major part of it used to create pastures. In order to create pastures, forests are cleared, which results into major deforestation. Livestock had a major contribution in damaging the earth. Polluting the water resources due to animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, the use of fertilizers and the pesticides which were used to spray feed crops.
Major environmental groups’ focus is on natural gas and oil production, their hottest issue being, hydraulic fracturing. The amount of water used by in the process and the contamination of water done in the process. Hydraulic fracturing is the most commonly applied process to generate gas. In this process, millions of gallons of water, approximately, hundred billion gallons of water, several chemicals and some amount of sand is pushed underground to fracture the rocks to release gas. Roughly, two hundred tanker trucks deliver water for the process. While scientists are worried about the wastage or consumption of water in the process, they fail to understand the water consumed by just grazing the is approximately, 2000 millions gallons of water
Heather Cooley, pacific institute, water programme co director, says, The average of California uses about 1500 gallons of water per person per day and about half of that is related to the consumption of meat and dairy products. Meat and dairy products are incredibly water intensive
Have you ever thought about eating one hamburger would result in wastage of water?
One quarter pound of hamburger uses 660 gallons of water produced. By which it means that if an individual is taking short showers, to save water, it would be of no use. Eating one hamburger is equivalent to showers taken by a person over a period of two months.
So much of pressure is put upon us to lower the domestic water use, take short showers, or use bucket instead of showers, wash your car with bucket water and not with pipes and many more. Domestic use of water basically includes washing clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, watering lawns and gardens and washing cars. According to the various water conservation methods, 3 gallons of water saved per day by shower, 1 gallon of water saved by faucet, 19 gallons of water by the toilets, that is total of 47 gallons of water saved per day which cannot be compared to 660 gallons of water produced by just one hamburger. One of the many methods to save water as stated by various water conservationist is to turn the faucet off or to check the leakages. Take this illustration for better understanding, if your neighbour forgets to turn off the faucet and the water floods the entire street that would be equivalent to one hamburger.
Yet, domestic use of water is just 5 per cent of what the U.S uses versus the 55 per cent consumed by the animal agriculture. And that is because it takes around 2500 gallons7 (http://www.vegsource.com/articles/pimental_water.htm) of water to produce one pound of beef.
Whenever people talk about the climate change and the cause for it, the first thing that hits us is the fossil fuels. In 2009, two advisors from the World Bank, Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, released an analysis on the human induced greenhouse gases finding that animal agriculture was responsible for not 18 per cent as the UN stated but actually 51 per cent8 (https://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf) of all greenhouse gases. Yet all we hear about is the fossil fuels.
If this argument proves to be correct then the best strategy to reverse the climate change happening today would be to replace the livestock products with other better substitutes. And this would result far more rapid effects on the greenhouse gas emissions than replacing the fossil fuels with other renewable energy.
The report also mentions about the process of respiration in livestock.
Livestock are similar to the automobile. A carbon dioxide molecule exhaled by livestock is not a natural one if you are thinking like that. According to the report, over time there will be a balance of the amount of carbon dioxide respired by the livestock on one hand and the amount of carbon dioxide photosynthesised by the plants on the other. This balance or equilibrium has never been static. As compared to the pre-industrial era, billions of livestock has been exhaling carbon dioxide while on the other hand our earth’s photosynthetic capacity, that is, to absorb the carbon dioxide in the plants has sharply declined. Why so? Because we indulge in clearing of the forests at a very rapid rate. Not to forget our additional contribution in adding more of carbon by burning the fossil fuels.
Several livestock products contribute to the climate change namely, fluorocarbons, which are required to cool down the livestock products, which have the potential of warming thousand times more than carbon dioxide. Then we take into account the disposal of large amount of liquid wastes from the livestock, the wastes in the form of fat or bone, which results in emission of higher level of greenhouse gas when it goes into the landfills and waterways.
Consuming beef also known as red meat, or any other livestock product may cause heart diseases, diabetes or hypertension leading to strokes. The medical industries used to treat these illnesses may cover the part accounting for greenhouse gases from these livestock products.
Another key factor for climate change is increase in population and similarly the growth of number of livestock. And if the number of livestock keeps on increasing the emission of greenhouse gases goes on in the similar manner. So to have an effective outcome, strategy should involve replacing of the livestock products with other better substitutes rather than replacing one type of livestock product with another type which may be considered better than the former. This replacement can not only lower the emissions of greenhouse gases but may also help in the worldwide food and water crises happening today. Climate change pose threat to the food industry as well and prevent the emerging markets from achieving growth. For example, a hurricane occurs in a particular area, the market is bound to suffer loss may it be loss in sales or damages in stores.
The removal of the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere depends upon the rates of emissions of the particular gas and the process involved.
If you reduce the amount of methane emissions the level in atmosphere goes down very quickly within decades which is in contrast to the level of carbon dioxide. If you reduce the level of carbon dioxide emission there will not be any signal for decades. This is so because of the process in which carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and the lands. Oceans and the lands absorb 50 per cent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere and the remaining 50 per cent remains in the atmosphere. Say, there is emission of 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide, we reduce it to 29 billion tons. 50 per cent of the 29 billion ton is absorbed by the ocean and land, while the rest of it remains in the atmosphere. And because of this slow process, carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for years even if it substantially reduced from the existing levels. Which also concludes that 50 per cent reduction in the emission is required for stabilisation of its concentration. While on the other hand, methane is removed by the chemical processes.
(https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/2016/05/23/why-has-a-drop-in-global-co2-emissions-not-caused-co2-levels-in-the-atmosphere-to-stabilize/)
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/pd/climate/factsheets/ifemmision.pdf
Single largest contributor to every known environmental problem known to human kind, may it be deforestation, water scarcity, destabilisation with communities, hunger, poverty, the list goes on. It is an environmental disaster that’s being ignored by the very people who should be concerned about it.
10000 years ag, free living animals made up 99 per cent of the bio mass and we human beings made up only 1 per cent of the bio mass. Today, only 10,000 years later, which is only a fraction of time, we human beings and the animals we own as our property make up 98 per cent of the bio mass and while free living animals make up only 2 per cent. We have completely stolen the Earth from the free living animals to use for ourselves, our cows, chickens and pigs. The oceans have been more devastated. Concerned researchers of the loss of species agree that the primary cause for the loss of species on our earth is due to over- grazing and habitat loss and by over fishing which are called fishing in our oceans.
The rainforests have been cut down and the driving force behind all of these is animal agriculture, cutting down forests to graze animals and to grow soy weeds, to feed cows, chickens. 91 per cent of the loss of rainforests in the Amazon area is due to grazing livestock.
If the leading cause of environmental destruction is animal agriculture, then why the leading environmental organisations not talking about this issue?
They are Membership organisations, maximising people contributing.
They do not want to address the primary cause , which is animal agriculture because they are businesses and they need to ensure they have the reliable source of funding