Comment Log Display

Comment Log Display

Below is the comment you selected to display.
Comment 52 for Design Comments for the GHG Scoping Plan (sp-design-ws) - 1st Workshop.


First Name: Helen
Last Name: yang
Email Address: taotaom@gmail.com
Affiliation:

Subject: Livestock a major threat to environment
Comment:
According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more
greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent ¡V 18
percent ¡V than transport. It is also a major source of land and
water degradation. 

Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO¡¦s Livestock Information and
Policy Branch and senior author of the report: ¡§Livestock are one
of the most significant contributors to today¡¦s most serious
environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the
situation.¡¨ 

With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and
dairy products every year. Global meat production is projected to
more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465
million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580
to 1043 million tonnes. 

Long shadow 

The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other
agricultural sub-sector. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3
billion people and contributes about 40 percent to global
agricultural output. For many poor farmers in developing countries
livestock are also a source of renewable energy for draft and an
essential source of organic fertilizer for their crops. 

But such rapid growth exacts a steep environmental price,
according to the FAO report, Livestock¡¦s Long Shadow
¡VEnvironmental Issues and Options. ¡§The environmental costs per
unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to
avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,¡¨ it
warns. 

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the
livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from
human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even
more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 percent of
human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global
Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure. 

And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced
methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by
the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which
contributes significantly to acid rain. 

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth¡¦s entire land surface,
mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the
global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the
report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is
a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where,
for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have
been turned over to grazing. 

Land and water 

At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with
about 20 percent of pastures considered as degraded through
overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This figure is even higher in
the drylands where inappropriate policies and inadequate livestock
management contribute to advancing desertification. 

The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the
earth¡¦s increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among
other things to water pollution, euthropication and the
degeneration of coral reefs. The major polluting agents are animal
wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries,
fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops.
Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing
replenishment of above and below ground water resources.
Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of
feed. 

Livestock are estimated to be the main inland source of
phosphorous and nitrogen contamination of the South China Sea,
contributing to biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems. 

Meat and dairy animals now account for about 20 percent of all
terrestrial animal biomass. Livestock¡¦s presence in vast tracts
of land and its demand for feed crops also contribute to
biodiversity loss; 15 out of 24 important ecosystem services are
assessed as in decline, with livestock identified as a culprit.

Source:fao.org 

 

Attachment:

Original File Name:

Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2008-07-31 22:04:10



If you have any questions or comments please contact Office of the Ombudsman at (916) 327-1266.


Board Comments Home

preload