Methane Emissions from livestock 51% of GHG emissions

Saturday, October 24, 2009
11:39 PM


 
In the run up to the Copenhagen climate change conference, it is vital the following information be disseminated to the public as well as to our political leaders.
 
A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to livestock….however recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change" in the latest issue of World Watch magazine found that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions!
 
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf
 
Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing livestock products with soy-based and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. They say "This approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations-and thus on the rate the climate is warming-than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy."
 
The fact is that we are being informed of the dangerous path we are on by depending greatly on animal flesh for human consumption.
The information has been provided to us, therefore citizens like you and I, need to take the lead moving in the direction necessary so that those in power, governments and other unaware individuals realize that we are currently facing a planetary crisis .
 
We still have the opportunity to make the most effective steps in saving ourselves an this planet. By simply choosing a plant based diet as well as changing light bulbs, shutting off lights , riding bicycles and recycling we can reduce our carbon foot print by a huge amount.  
 
We are gambling with our lives and with those of our future generations to come. It's madness to know we are fully aware of the possible consequences but yet are failing to act. Climate change is not an issue for a community or of one nation, it is the challenge that humanity and all life on this planet faces.
 
Please make a truly environmental, healthy and compassionate choice, choose to drastically reduce your meat intake or simply go vegetarian or vegan.
 
 
Society for the Advancement of Animal Wellbeing
www.SAAWinternational.org