In 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization had estimated that animal raising for meat and dairy is a esponsible for 18% of global warming.

However, it is becoming increasingly clear to scientists that the livestock industry is playing
a more significant role.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chief of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) remark during a talk he gave in September 2008 on the role of reducing meat consumption in addressing global warming.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Chair of United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, VEGETARIAN (M): Since people found out about this talk that I was going to give here today, I’ve received a number of emails from people that I respect saying that the 18% figure is an underestimate; it’s a low estimate and in actual fact it’s much higher.

VOICE: Greenhouse gases are emitted during virtually every step of the meat producing process.  
Of the three major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, methane is up to 72 times more potent than CO2, while nitrous oxide is up to 300 times more potent.

To arrive at the potency of these gases, the general method is to average over a 100-year period.
However,methane in particular is a much shorter-lived gas. Scientists have thus determined that it is more accurate to average methane’s potency over 20 years.
This gives methane a 72 times greater potency than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

US physicist Noam Mohr of the New York University Polytechnic Institute stated the following in a telephone interview with Supreme Master Television.

Voice of Noam Mohr – Physicist, New York University Polytechnic Institute, USA, VEGETARIAN (M): When measured over 100 years, the United Nations said animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global warming emissions, which is an enormous amount, far more than all transportation put together.

 If you look at it on a shorter term, methane has an outsized effect, and so that number goes up. The true value in the near term when we take all these things into account is much higher.

Professor Barry Brook (M): So, if you look at these reports they will suggest it has about 25 times the impact of CO2. But really when it’s up there in the atmosphere doing its work, it’s 72 times the impact and that makes a big difference.

At 37% of global methane emissions, livestock is the single largest source of human-caused methane. Dr. Kirk Smith Professor, University of California – Berkeley, USA (M): Sure we have to deal with CO2, but if you want to make an impact on climate in the next 20 years, the place to do it is with the shorter-lived greenhouse gases, most important of which is methane.

So, of the emissions in the next 20 years, the CO2 in this year’s emissions will only be about 40% of the total warming.

The other 60% or more will be from the shorter-lived gases, most important of which is methane.

VOICE: In addition, according to US physicist Noam Mohr, livestock has an even larger share of emissions when yet another unaccounted factor is acknowledged:

aerosols, or particles released along with CO2 from burning fossil fuels that despite their detrimental health aspects, actually have a cooling effect.

Voice of Noam Mohr – Physicist with degrees from Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, USA, VEGETARIAN (M): When you consider aerosols and consider the net effect of burning fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide released heats the planet, the aerosols cool the planet, and the net effect roughly cancels each other out.

 That means that most of the warming we have seen historically and are likely to see in the future comes from other gases, namely methane.   

Dr. Kirk R. Smith – Professor, University of California – Berkeley, USA (M): Already livestock is 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions, excuse me, the meat system, which includes the animals,
includes growing the food for the animals, includes the transport of the meat, includes the fertilizer to grow the food to feed the meat. And that’s with not treating methane any more than the sort of normal way it is used.

Dr. Kirk R. Smith (M): If you treat it more, then that 20% will go up to maybe 30%. So the 30%, in the next 20 years, is going to be due to meat production.

VOICE: Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a renowned researcher and internationally bestselling author of “The China Study,” also indicated that livestock’s role in heating the planet is much bigger.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell – Renowned nutrition researcher, Cornell University, USA, VEGAN (M): I just had some information just recently, that the new figures now indicate that at least half of the greenhouse gases that are up there now, not that 15 or 20%, at least half – and maybe considerably more – are due to livestock production.

VOICE: We thank the distinguished scientists for confirming the importance of reducing meat consumption to minimize methane emissions.May everyone soon join in the sustainable plant-based solution to most effectively halt global warming for all inhabitants of our Earth.