Livestock not on UNEP Report on Environment

• Here's one quick summary of the UN Panel's Report on the Environment. Check it out at
  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/04/news/climateside.2-45561.php
  
  Eight key areas have been identified:
  1. Energy supply sector
  2. Transport
  3. Buildings
  4. Transport
  5. Industry
  6. Agriculture
  7. Forests
  8. Waste
  
  Here's a big question - Why is there no separate discussion on key strategies and ways to counter the impact of the livestock industry's contribution to global warming?
  
  Key facts about the contribution from the livestock industry (the factory farming of animals for food) to global warming:

• The FAO has admitted that the livestock industry contributes more to global warming than the transport industry, as much as 18%.

• The FAO Report states that, " The livestock industry accounts for respectively 37 % of all human-induced methane, which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 % of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

• Livestock now use 30 % of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 % of the global arable land used to produce feed for livestock".

• In Latin America as much as 70 % of forests have been converted into grazing land.

• Further, the FAO Report states that, " 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 press release on the FAO's website while referring to the livestock industry clearly mentions that, "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 Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of feed".

• The FAO Report also points out that 15 out of 24 important ecosystem services are getting depleted due to livestock.
  
  Sources:
  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/04/news/climateside.2-45561.php
  http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Do you agree on this?
No animal factory farms = more forest land + more agricultural land + more water & cleaner water + 18% less global warming

An interesting essay: Read it right now!

Here's an interesting essay that Dr Priyandarsanan Dharma Rajan recommends EcoWatch readers read right away.

Here's a quotation from the essay

".... Some quixotic writers have toyed with the idea of last-ditch measures. They say, “Let’s conserve the millions of surviving species and races by deep-freezing fertilized eggs or tissue samples for later resurrection.”

Or,

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Follow this link to read the full essay http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/21/675/

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