Worldwatch Institute

Livestock and Climate Change
by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang

Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change
are...cows, pigs, and chickens?

The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised
for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least
half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert
Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change".

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of
annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep,
goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and
Anhang finds 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.

Read "Livestock and Climate Change," World Watch Magazine [FREE 
PDF]http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294

Worldwatch Institute

Livestock and Climate Change
by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang

Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change
are...cows, pigs, and chickens?

The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised
for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least
half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert
Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change".

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of
annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep,
goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and
Anhang finds 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.

Read "Livestock and Climate Change," World Watch Magazine [FREE PDF] 
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294