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Boost it!

New Study: Livestock Pollutes Air More than Cars?

Agent009 submitted on 12/21/2006 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 11:47:45 AM

20 user comments | Category: Misc News | Source: | SOURCE: wardsauto.com

Tag Link: Pollution

For those who blame auto makers for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, it may be worth noting a new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that says the livestock sector generates 18% more harmful gases, as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, than the vehicle transport segment and also is a major source of land and water degradation.



“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” Henning Steinfeld, author of the report, is quoted as saying. “Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Livestock production generates 65% of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO2, most of it from manure, the report says. It accounts for 37% of all human-induced methane, 23 times as warming as CO2, as well as 64% of ammonia, which contributes to acid rain.







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New Study: Livestock Pollutes Air More than Cars?

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Agent009

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."

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User Comments

EL34

Of course, and 20 years ago the wackos were chanting Global Cooling was coming and I think they're right if you check the weather for Denver, Colorado.

Back when volcano Mt. St. Helens exploded it blew more toxic crap into the air than the world has produced in the last 100 years.

— EL34 (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 12:03:50 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

ElSparquito

Geez, how do we dispose of livestock then - oh yeah, we eat'em!

What automaker paid for this study?

— ElSparquito (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 1:38:42 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Heyhuub

Be silend treehugger

— Heyhuub (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 2:05:49 PM | | Votes: 2   

chewy

Stupid cows.

— chewy (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 3:01:40 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

XYZZ

stupid chewy. stop eating hamburgers.
simple as that, simpleton.

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 12/23/2006 4:17:09 AM | | Votes: 2   

Rupert

eat tofu.
or fish.
or use the methane to power things.
as chewy says, stupid cows. can we fit particulate filters to them?

— Rupert (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 3:04:28 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

1970toyotamarc

I actually hope you were being serious because a lot of what you are saying is true. Just driving a Prius is not enough. Cutting back our beef consumption will do so much for out planet's sustainability, not to mention our arteries. It's a small sacrifice. I'm no vegetarian by any stretch, but I know that by eating less beef, and more soy, fish and poultry, I am making a difference in global warming. (And when I get that Prius, it'll be all the more)
I'm sure the point of this article was to make people not care about their polluting cars, but hopefully it will make them care about cars and other things we can do to make the workd better for us and future generations.

— 1970toyotamarc (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 3:31:29 PM | | Votes: 2   

Rupert

i was being kinda serious, except for the particulate filter bit obviously. eating quorn is a better idea, because that makes food out of waste matter, using bacteria. so you can literally make food out of crap. why they don't put some giant vats in africa and other famine affected places i don't know.
amazingly, the person who invented quorn went to my school.

— Rupert (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 6:39:15 PM | | Votes: 1   

S4cabriofoxone

In three years, fish might be gone, because global warming is producing so much carbon dioxide that coral reefs will have no "ideal" areas. It was one of the parts in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Staggering movie. We need to get something done!

And yet, I'm still sitting here with my 16mpg S4 Cabriolet. (Tear...)

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 12/22/2006 1:05:08 AM | | Votes: 2   

chewy

I am sure reading this site is highly polluting, but we aren't in the stone age.

— chewy (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 4:45:39 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

chewy

Eat a cow save the world.

— chewy (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 9:43:56 PM | | Votes: 2   

webguy

Oh well... If I worried about destroying the Earth every time I bought something, drove somewhere or ate anything I’d have to kill myself. I’m not spending my smidgeon of existence on this planet worrying myself into baldness, ulcers and a heart attack because my comically large ego believes everything I do is significant enough to ruing the very fabric of Mother Nature. Our existence as a whole is hardly a blip on the radar; let alone a few thousand people driving a Prius or eating fish, naively attempting to save the planet. We’re killing off the world’s fish supply too, as it turns out. So at the end of the day, the only affect we have is suppressing our own media inflicted guilt.

Studies such as these are fundamentally flawed. They’re designed to prove an existing belief, and are fueled by the notion that humans, and apparently cows now, are Earth's virus. Do we really understand how "harmful" gasses are ultimately handled? We’re not finding the natural counter-balance because we’re not looking, nor can we even begin to understand the intricate inner-workings of our planet when we do. We have yet to prove any kind of cause and effect relationship. There are far more theories than the facts our frame of reference can provide.

Besides, California will sue all of the environmental pollutants out of existence right? These cows better get lawyers.

— webguy (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 6:08:12 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

S4cabriofoxone

Holy crap, you should do well as a philosopher.

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 12/22/2006 1:07:05 AM | | Votes: 3   

Carboy

Finally a enviormentalist cares about cars.

— Carboy (View Profile)

Posted on 12/21/2006 11:16:54 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

XYZZ

there ARE some of us around.

usually we get dissed for not having/wanting the exciting HOT cars. (which naturally tend to HEAT everyone and everything around them.)

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 12/23/2006 4:35:24 AM | | Votes: 0   

Heyhuub

10 years ago people hadn't even heard about global warming, and now people are all worried that all life on this planet will die over 10 years.

— Heyhuub (View Profile)

Posted on 12/22/2006 7:10:28 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

NARunner

This is just some automaker trying to shift blame. Greenhouse gas emissions come from a number of different sources (automotive, agricultural, industrial) and all contribute their fair share. This stupid article is like saying "Oh no, it's not the motorist's fault! It's tje cow's!"

Like we've had it all wrong all these years and this is supposed to enlighten us.

What we all need to remember is that everything causes cancer and everything harms the environment in some way...hence, we will all die some day and the world will be no better until the human species is extinct and the earth can return to a natural balance and the whole party will start all over again!

my idiotic $.02...

— NARunner (View Profile)

Posted on 12/22/2006 10:04:08 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

XYZZ

"...everything causes cancer and everything harms the environment in some way...hence, we will all die some day and the world will be no better until the human species is extinct and the earth can return to a natural balance and the whole party will start all over again!"

actually, about the SMARTEST two cents' worth of insight i've seen lately!

cancer is a NATURAL growth, gone amuck! growth is good, until it becomes UNCONTROLLED.

you're completely right, that (just about) EVERYTHING
harms the environment in some way. but there ARE things that HELP the environment too. the task is to RECOGNIZE BOTH, minimize the former, and maximize the latter.
can we reverse the razing of rain forests to grow cattle? maybe, maybe not. we see today, that was such an IDIOTIC thing to have done in the past! we are only now seeing the CONSEQUENCES of it.

RECOGNIZING problems and potential problems such as this is not the province of "alarmists and wackos." it's usually the result of serious scientists, trying to give advance warnings that we need to RE-THINK our thoughtless habits.

sorta like old testament prophets, without the morality thing.

we can make fun of them and eventually perish. or we can take heed and survive. whichever we do, future generations will pay the price OR benefit.

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 12/23/2006 4:32:26 AM | | Votes: 1   

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