Climate change is an existential threat to our species according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. They have put the metaphorical dooms-day clock at 2 minutes to midnight. It hasn’t been this close since 1953 when the Soviets and Americans tested the first hydrogen bombs. They cite climate change, the dramatic ongoing loss of biodiversity (a dramatic reduction in species number often called the sixth mass extinction) and human’s response to these issues in addition to the continuing threat of nuclear war. This group is worth listening to.
A paper published in Nature earlier this year increased the odds that we will reach 4 degrees Celsius global average temperature above pre-industrial levels by 2100 from 62 percent to 93 percent. Many experts believe 2 degrees of warming or more could dangerously influence global climate.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), “Globally (the livestock sector) is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases and one of the leading causal factors in the loss of biodiversity, while in developed and emerging countries it is perhaps the leading source of water pollution.”
A study published by the UN FAO in 2006 found “overall, livestock activities contribute an estimated 18 percent to total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the five major sectors for greenhouse gas reporting: energy, industry, waste, land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) and agriculture.” At the more radical end of the spectrum, a study published by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Watch in 2009 concluded that livestock and their byproducts are responsible for 51percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.
The studies by the UN/FAO and World Bank/IFC, entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow” and “Livestock and Climate change” respectively, draw attention to what the UN report says is responsible for “a higher share” of annual worldwide GHG emissions “than transport.” In other words, the more conservative study found that livestock was a larger GHG contributor than all planes, trains, boats and cars combined.
On the less conservative side of the spectrum, in the World Bank, IFC and World Watch report entitled “Livestock and Climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are cows, pigs, and chickens?” researchers concluded that livestock and their byproducts “in fact account for at least half of all human-caused GHGs.”
The World Bank/IFC report’s conclusions differ from the UN/FAO report drastically due to what World Watch called “uncounted, overlooked, and misallocated livestock-related GHG emissions.” When World Watch considered what they characterized as “overlooked respiration by livestock, overlooked land use, undercounted methane,” and other information like a 12 percent increase in livestock products worldwide by tonnage, they concluded that “the life cycle and supply chain of domesticated animals raised for food have been vastly underestimated as a source of GHGs, and in fact account for at least half of all human-caused GHGs.”
Livestock doesn’t just increase our GHG load on the environment, it is also a leading — if not the largest — user of scarce resources like water and land. According to the Water Footprint Network, on average worldwide, a gallon of milk requires around 1000 gallons of water to produce. Chicken requires 518 gallons of water per pound, while beef requires a whopping 1,847 gallons per pound.
In terms of land use, the UN/FAO report states that “the livestock sector is by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land.” Grazing uses 26 percent of the “ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet” while “the total area dedicated to feed crop production amounts to 33 percent of the total arable land.” The report concluded that “in all, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.” Animal agriculture is a leading cause of deforestation for feed-crop growth and desertification from grazing.
Animal agriculture often involves cutting down forests to grow GMOs with fertilizer and petrochemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and then feeding the crops to livestock and farmed fish. The phosphorus and nitrates from fertilizers and animal waste wash into the ocean and feeds algae blooms that depletes the oxygen in the water, creating dead zones that kill other marine life. Once all the damage is done, we have still lost around 83 percent to 97 percent of the calories converting plant foods into animal foods.
As all this goes on, Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. and Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine has pointed out that according to peer-reviewed studies, Americans on average eat too much protein, saturated fat and cholesterol; nutrients associated with animal foods. Even vegetarians and vegans averaged 70 percent more protein than recommended. Studies also estimate that 97 percent of Americans may be deficient in fiber, which is only found in plants, and upwards of 98 percent of Americans may be deficient in potassium, an element whose name comes from burning plants to ash in a pot. Pot-ash-ium. When it comes to Americans meeting recommendations, 96 percent don’t eat enough beans, 96 percent don’t eat enough greens, and 99 percent don’t get enough whole grains.
We are talking about how our food choices affect the sixth mass extinction and anthropogenic climate change, the Anthropocene. We are talking about human health and whether we need to destroy the environment to produce food devoid of fiber and high in saturated fat and cholesterol. We have a responsibility to all life on earth and to future generations to educate ourselves on and confront these issues. The continued organized survival of the species may well depend on it.
Sean Chenoweth can be reached at [email protected]
***This story has been updated from the original post.