Global Warming
Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous
oxide are naturally occurring gases in the
atmosphere. They act like the glass of a
greenhouse by trapping the sun’s heat and
reflecting it back to earth. This phenomenon
is what makes the world habitable, keeping
the atmosphere about 33ºC/92ºF higher than
it would otherwise be.
Animal agriculture adds significantly to these
background levels and increases global
warming. In 2006, the United Nations Food &
Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) identified
the scale of this contribution – livestock are
the second biggest source of global warming
gases, producing 18 per cent of the total.
This compares with a 13.5 per cent
contribution from all the world’s transport
systems combined.
As polar ice caps melt and the world’s oceans
warm and expand, flooding will become a
major problem. Britain’s Hadley Centre for feedback’ could mean that global warming
Climate Change predicts that 200 million becomes unstoppable and uncontrollable.
people will eventually be at risk, including
some entire island countries. About one third The gas most damaging for the environment
of all agricultural land will permanently is CO2 because of the quantities produced.
disappear under water, dramatically increasing The second most damaging is methane, 21
the existing pressure on food production. times more effective at trapping heat than
CO2 and which remains in the atmosphere for
Mass migrations of millions of landless nine to 15 years. Nitrous oxide is the third
people presents a potential environmental most damaging, has 296 times more global
and humanitarian disaster as well as warming potential than CO2 and retains its
threatening serious conflict. effect for 114 years.
Permafrost regions of the world contain Livestock and the processes to feed,
within their frozen soil an incalculable transport, kill and turn them into meat and
amount of methane – billions of tons. As dairy are responsible for considerable
temperatures rise and the soil defrosts, this amounts of all three gases. For example the
gas will be released and accelerate the pace UN FAO reported the following.
of global warming. It is a similar story with
the sea bed of the Arctic Ocean. The bulk of the world’s crop production is
fed to animals and requires large-scale
The more the earth warms, the more application of nitrogen fertilizer to boost
methane will be released and this ‘positive yields. This produces nitrous oxide whilst
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