Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated? 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions | Worldwatch Institute

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Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated?

 

October 20, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washington, D.C.-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" in the latest

issue of World Watch magazine.

 

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.

 

Reviewing both direct and indirect sources of GHG emissions from

livestock, the study finds that previous calculations have both

underestimated and overlooked certain emissions sources as well as

assigned emissions they deem to be livestock-related to the wrong

sectors. The authors locate these discrepancies in previous analyses of

livestock respiration, land use, and methane.

 

Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing

livestock products with soy-based and other alternatives would be the

best strategy for reversing climate change. "This approach would have

far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric

concentrations-and thus on the rate the climate is warming-than actions

to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy."