UN: Meat Industry Causing 18% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Livestock Over-Production & Over-Consumption Generating 18% of All Greenhouse Gases

* Livestock's Long Shadow
By Geoffrey Lean
London Independent, 12.10.06
Straight to the Source

"A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs. The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled 'Livestock's Long Shadow,' also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming... Fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide."