Pollution from Farm Animals Responsible for a Fifth of Global Warming

U.N. Report States that Pollution from Farm Animals Responsible for a Fifth of Global Warming. By Robin Pomeroy, Reuters, November 29, 2006. "Farm animals are responsible for almost a fifth of the pollution blamed for global warming, a United Nations report said on Wednesday, warning that the livestock sector posed a growing environmental threat. Gases from manure and flatulence, deforestation to make grazing land and the energy used in farming meant livestock produced 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that trapped heat in the atmosphere, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said... While producing a relatively small proportion -- about 9 percent -- of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), livestock was responsible for large quantities of other important greenhouse gases, according to the FAO. Livestock produced 35-40 percent of methane emissions and 65 percent of nitrous oxide, which had almost 300 times the global warming potential of CO2, the report said. Besides the threat to the climate, the growth of livestock farming had added to water pollution and the reduction of forests to make way for grazing. About 70 percent of Amazonian forests had been turned into grazing land, it said."