Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Global Warming & the North End of that Southbound Cow



Here's your problem. It's 'Ol' Windy' again. Next time you sit down to that delicious New York strip or prime rib remember - you're destroying the environment!

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a report suggesting your dinner may be doing as much environmental damage as your SUV.

According to the FAO report, "When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for nine percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases."

It generates 65 percent of human-caused nitrous oxide, a gas that is 296 times more effective at trapping solar heat than carbon dioxide (CO2), the biggest greenhouse-gas by volume. Most of this pollution comes from manure.

Livestock also accounts for 37 percent of all human-induced methane, which is 23 times as warming as CO2 and is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and for 64 percent of ammonia, a big contributor to acid rain.

Not only that, but livestock's demand for feed crops contributes to biodiversity loss. The report proposes to increase the efficiency of livestock production and feed crop agriculture, and to improve animals' diets to reduce fermentation and consequent methane emissions.
Source: Agence France-Presse

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