MEAT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Study claims meat creates half of all greenhouse gases; Livestock causes far more climate damage than first thought, says a new report
Martin Hickman, 1 November 2009 (UK Independent)

"Climate change emissions from meat production are far higher than currently estimated, according to a controversial new study that will fuel the debate on whether people should eat fewer animal products to help the environment.

"In a paper published by a respected US thinktank, the Worldwatch Institute, two World Bank environmental advisers claim that instead of 18 per cent of global emissions being caused by meat, the true figure is 51 per cent."

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"They claim that United Nation's figures have severely underestimated the greenhouse gases caused by tens of billions of cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and other animals in three main areas: methane, land use and respiration…Their findings – which are likely to prompt fierce debate among academics – come amid increasing calls from climate change experts for people to eat less meat.

"In [Livestock and Climate Change; What if the key actors in climate change are cows, pigs, and chickens?], Robert Goodland, a former lead environmental adviser to the World Bank, and Jeff Anhang, a current adviser, suggest that domesticated animals cause 32 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), more than the combined impact of industry and energy. The accepted figure is 18 per cent, taken from a landmark UN report in 2006, Livestock's Long Shadow…

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"Their call to move to meat substitutes accords with the views of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, who has described eating less meat as "the most attractive opportunity" for making immediate changes to climate change…Lord Stern of Brentford, author of the 2006 review into the economic consequences of global warming, added his name to the call last week…Scientists are concerned about livestock's exhalation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Cows and other ruminants emit 37 per cent of the world's methane. A [recent] study by [NASA] scientists…found that methane has significantly more effect on climate change than previously thought: 33 times more than carbon dioxide…

"Goodland and Anhang…argue that the gas's impact should be calculated over 20 years, in line with its rapid effect – and the latest recommendation from the UN – rather than the 100 years [previously used]..Eating meat rather than plants also requires extra refrigeration and cooking and "expensive" treatment of human diseases arising from livestock such as swine flu, they say…[Environmentalists welcomed the report while experts said animals provide many non-food products that would have to be produced by equally or more emissions-intensive means]…"