[TinyRedLeaf]

^ The reports appeared some time back and, in my opinion, it's one of the stronger reasons for cutting meat consumption to appear in recent years. I can't find the original reports any more, but here are a couple of other articles related to the topic:

Cow farts 'harming the planet'

Oxford (Oct 13, 2006): Cows' farting and burping must be brought under control because they're causing global warming problems, a climate change expert has warned.

Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles, which is really bad for the environment.

The gas goes up into the atmosphere and makes the hole in the ozone layer bigger, worsening global warming.

Dr Chris Jardine of Oxford University says the British government must do more to halt the gassy problem.

And it's not just cows - sheep and goats also produce methane, which is 20 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.

- BBC (Children)

Global warming culprits: Cars and...cows

New York (Dec 13, 2006): If you're worried about global warming or water pollution, you can blame cars and factories, the White House, and the oil companies.

Or you can blame cows and pigs. Yes, cows and pigs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in a report called Livestock's Long Shadow, says, "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."

"The findings of this report," it says, "suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

Cows do not add to the amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

They do not run aground and spill crude oil. But they do ruminate — which is to say that they give off methane when they chew their cud and belch, and nitrous oxide and ammonia when they leave manure all over the barnyard.

So that pungent odour you smell on a farm? It's bad for the global environment.

Methane, while less prevalent in the air than carbon dioxide, is 23 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas, the FAO report says. Do some maths, the authors say, and you find that livestock is responsible for 18 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas problem.

What's more, cows take up a lot of space, grazing on land that could feed many more of the world's people if it were used for crops. The FAO says grazing takes up 26 per cent of the land on Earth that is not covered by ice — 30 per cent if you count the land used to grow feed for the animals.

The FAO says the problem "needs to be addressed with urgency". But it says the good news is that "major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost".

Cows' diets could be modified, for example. Manure could be recycled; it's already dried and burned as a fuel in many poorer countries — and because it comes from animals, it counts as "renewable".

What complicates it, though, is that livestock is used for food. If you want to control greenhouse gases, will people be willing to eat less meat?

- ABC NEWS