Animal Agriculture And Global Warming

Introduction (Attention Step): What do you think is the greatest cause of emission pollution? What do you believe is harming our planet? Well if you guessed that fossil fuel emissions are the biggest emission polluters, then you are completely wrong (attention getter). Animal Agriculture is actually the number one Greenhouse Gas emitter in the planet. Yes, cow farts are destroying the environment. It sounds crazy, but ever since the mid 60’s, agriculture associations have been spreading across the Americas and dominated the industry. The most destructive of all Ag corps are Livestock Corporation. These associations include IBP, Conagra, Perdue, Farmland National Beef, Cargill, etc … Animal Agriculture is effecting every single person in this room because we all breathe in the same air, drink the same water, and eat the same (credibility). The buildup of Animal Agriculture is a great destruction to our planet and our species because it is creating

Animal Agriculture accounts for much of the issues in our environment today. Most would not think of animal agriculture being the main reason for pollution or greenhouse gasses. The majority of people would agree that the fossil fuels that come from cars are the number one producer for greenhouse gasses. Well think again. I am going to tell you how animal agriculture has affected our atmosphere in a negative way by emitting a large amount of GHGs, and in turn effecting our climate and speeding up the global warming process. Animal agriculture refers to an industrial livestock production, the management of farm animals such as cattle, poultry, and in some cases fish, are bred, fed and cared for in a way that is advantageous to humans, also known as factory farming. Animals behavior, genetic qualities and are altered to fit the mold of a human. This process requires a lot of energy, land and water.

By raising the animals, they seem to release more methane gas into the environment than what scientists thought. One way to fix this situation is to be a vegetarian, but only for about five days a month. We don’t have to be a full time vegetarian, but at the same time, this way of consuming meat can also improve our environment. We will be able to force the livestock industries to reduce their products, and therefore, we can reduce the amount of methane gas released into our environment. This practice is easy to do, and Thay also mentioned in his book that a lot of people have been practicing to be a vegetarian, and some of them claim that they will cut off at least 50 % of the meat they eat.

Cows are destroying our planet?! According to Margaret Lundberg they are. In Lundberg’s essay “Eating Green” the author states her belief “that our personal and global health [are] tightly interconnected, and what benefits one will benefit the other” (Lundberg 570). Lundberg than goes on to explain why a vegetarian diet will restore the environment. She lacks a realistic solution for her American meat-obsessed audience. Lundberg also used unreliable sources to over emphasize the effects that the meat industry has on the environment as well as shows no evidence that a vegetarian diet is actually good for the environment.

Whitney Lauriston article discuss and gives 5 reason why to go vegan to save the planet rating to my topics. I agree with her because tells the importance we should consider of going vegan to save environment. Veganism can offer good benefits not just to environment but to our health. I also learned that livestock pollution can be very harmful to us humans. Livestock Factory releases many harmful toxics gas to the air that we breathe in. We can form tumors that may be dangerous if not treated early.

In elementary school, I was taught to save water I should take shorter showers, make sure the faucet doesn’t run too long, or not use the dishwasher unless it’s completely full. What every voice of authority (my teachers, parents, elected officials) failed to mention was that my food choices have a bigger impact on how much water I use than the former three combined.

More land is being used to create farmlands instead of simply reusing older land. 26% of the land is used for livestock and 33% is used for growing the food needed for livestock ("10 Scary Facts About Meat and the Environment." Para 5). The land that is left unused is reducing at a rapid rate due to the expansion of agricultural land and with that, more of Earth’s forests are being cut down. Additionally, it takes more than nine time the fossil fuel to produce one calorie of meat than it does for one calorie of plant protein and 51% of global greenhouses gases are attributed to livestock ("10 Scary Facts About Meat and the Environment." Para 4). Even to produce meat, an immense number of crops are used. It takes almost 5 pounds of feed to produce just one pound of chicken. With the rate of depletion of land, crops, and environmental quality, there needs to be a change in the agricultural

According, to NASA over the past 250 years “carbon dioxide levels have increased nearly 38 percent as of 2009”. Carbon dioxide is a natural compound found in our earth's atmosphere however to much of it can can cause warmer climate. Just one single carbon dioxide molecule can remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. As many scientists have stated before high quantities of carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming. Methane levels are surging in our planet’s air with major intensity and it’s not just the petroleum industry’s fault. The United States Environmental Protection Agency stated that “60% of methane emissions come from human activity [and it is] emitted from [petroleum] and agriculture”. Livestock animals are known to cause

Various proposals exist to eliminate and/or reduce the impact animal agriculture entails on climate change. The report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations suggests alternatives to the various sectors to the livestock industry. They propose better efficiency so, “...a larger portion of the energy in the animals’ feed is directed toward the creation of useful products (milk, meat, draught power), so that methane emissions per unit product are reduced.” (qtd. in Shields 363). The Humane Society International also developed some solutions the overall population can contribute to reduce climate change issues in the environment. One suggestion is promoting a higher population of people with plant-based diets in order to reduce the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The Humane Society International also ties this suggestion to an overall improvement for not only animal welfare, but public heath too. (“The Impact of Animal Agriculture” n.p.).

Animal agriculture is a big part of the greenhouse gases. Cows produce a lot of methane which is one of the greenhouse gases. We kill trees to clear land to grow crops to feed animals that we are going to kill to make food. Making meat especially beef are one of the big factors in climate change.Fossil fuel-energy is 80% of greenhouse gases and 6% comes from animal agriculture.

Livestock is good for the environment because they help land and crops become healthier. For example, Simon Fairlie claims, “Organic crops, grown without animal manure, require 33 per cent more land (to supply green manure) than crops grown with manure.” Manure fertilizes the land, creating richer soil, requiring less land to grow crops. Fairlie explains that approximately twenty-five percent of the world’s land is unsuitable for growing crops. Livestock can graze on the land, making use of it. The article “The Role

Environmental agencies put a large emphasis on how fossil fuels as a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming. They suggest that we carpool, bike, or purchase a hybrid vehicle when in fact, animal agriculture has a bigger carbon footprint than all transportation methods combined. Animal agriculture contributes to 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. If you take into account livestock respiration, land use, and methane, animal agriculture contributes to 51% of all global emissions compared to the 13% of all combined transportation emissions. Even we stopped using oil, gas, fuel, and electricity and never used them again, we

The impacts of livestock on global climate change are important to the health of the ecosystem because it causes the average global temperature to increase. Livestock contributes to the majority of methane emitted into the atmosphere because of the feces it produces. The growing population increase is not helpful to this matter because as a result, a demand of food arises. This demand for food also includes the demand for livestock because it is appropriate for the human diet. “Meat production is to double from 229 million tonnes in [2000] to 465 million tonnes in 2050” (McMichael et al. 1259). The methane emission rate is bound to increase because it is “dependent upon the population size of the [livestock], their productivity, and [handling system]” (Jose et al. 3).

Man’s mass animal farming habits are also responsible for 18% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (Anderson and Kuhn). The primary contributor to these emissions is methane— one of the most harmful toxic human-caused gases that absorbs infrared radiation and becomes trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere causing a rise in temperature (EPA). The Environmental Protection Agency states that, “Domestic livestock . . . produce large amounts of methane as part of their normal digestive process. Also, when animals ' manure is stored or managed in lagoons or holding tanks, methane is produced . . . Globally, the agriculture sector is the primary source of methane emissions” (EPA). On a smaller scale, animal waste actually produces a very small amount of methane on its own. However, the one billion animals that are raised in confinement on diets of abnormally high protein from corn and soybeans produce mass amounts of toxic waste every year that poison the Earth’s atmosphere. Andersen and Kuhn’s recent study shows that, “Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the U.S.” This is 130 times the amount of waste that is created by humans annually. (Andersen and Kuhn). CAFOs in the U.S. alone produce about 500 million tons of waste every year (Koneswaran and Nierenberg 579). Results from a Steinfeld study in 2006 state that:

The production of animal products for human consumption contributes over 14.5 towards global greenhouse gas emissions, and is one of the biggest factors of climate change . Most consumers of meat and dairy are uninformed of this fact, as they believe that transportation and the burning of fossil fuels are the leading contributors towards global warming, and not the production of foods that they consume on a daily basis and in large quantities. However, the consumers are not the only ones to blame; in America, large meat and dairy corporations as well as the government are two forces that heavily advertise and influence the consumption of animal products. In fact, companies such as Tyson Foods have successfully lobbied for the Agriculture