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Livestock and global warming – A lesson untaught

Livestock and global warming

 

I’m not too sure about the root cause about the mistake but certainly school text books and media has failed to give us the right picture. Global warming is an increase of the earth’s temperature by a few degrees resulting in an increase in the volume of water which contributes to sea-level rise.

Now, as we all know, this increase in temperature is mainly due to green-house gases in the atmosphere such as carbon-dioxide, carbon-monoxide, methane etc. It is generally believed and stated that of all green-house gases, carbon-dioxide concentration is maximum in the atmosphere and thus contribute maximum to global warming and hence, all the concern about automobile emission, burning fossil fuels etc.

But there is an issue that demands more attention. The amount of energy and resources we invest in breeding livestock for food, alongside naturally toxic excretions of those animals, is more responsible for global-warming than burning fossil fuels. Poultry though contribute the least among all livestock.

Statistics reveal some shocking realities:

Cattle account for about 18% more green-house gases than the entire transportation sector world wide.
Cattle, bison, sheep and goats burp out a lot of methane that traps 23 times more heat per ton than carbon dioxide.
A diet including dairy product can reduce green-house gases to less than 2 tons as compared to a vegan. So that’s good enough reason for you to consume non-veg, if your community condemns it for ethical reasons.

Well, may be it is high time we turned our attention to the livestock, now that we’ve found a great many alternatives to automobile emissions. It wouldn’t be fair if I was to suggest you to change your vegan diet but if you are a vegan for ethical reasons, to me this seems like an equally ethical issue.

If this is a disturbing news and you think it would be sensible to add on some animal product to your diet, I would suggest you to add dairy products and chicken because Chickens don’t ‘burp’ methane and they produce only one-tenth the methane of cattle waste.

via : Gadling

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