UN recommends tax on livestock.
A report issued by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommends levying fees for livestock as a way to reduce this sector’s emission of greenhouse gases, currently estimated at 7,000 billion tons of CO2 equivalent annually.

Moreover, livestock raising is known to impact not only human health but also causes enormous damage to ecosystems, biodiversity, land, forests and water quality.

“The State of Food and Agriculture” report thus calls for market-based policies such as taxes and subsidy reductions that would cause producers to minimize environmental damage by being required to absorb its costs.

FAO Director-general Jacques Diouf stated that the rapid growth of the livestock sector has unfortunately thus far had little oversight, with current estimates forecasting that without a change in course, the number of livestock cattle alone will increase 70% to 2.6 billion by mid-century.

Director-general Diouf and United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, we laud your recommendations for such planet-protecting policies. May governments across the globe be motivated to implement measures as these for the benefit of all the Earth’s inhabitants. During an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of this very subject, calling on world leaders to forego livestock raising as a way to save the planet.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38154ea0-1cb2-11df-8d8e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/un-green-crusade-plans-tax-on-livestock-wind--1368.html

Extra News
Saying that climate change poses a significant threat to future water availability, Pakistan’s Environment Ministry announces the creation of an online system to monitor planning and policy information.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=223778

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, USA reports that ocean warming, overfishing and pollution are threatening thousands of species that inhabit the deep seas.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/16/vampire-squid-threatened_n_456871.html


International NGO Oxfam reports Tajikistan is facing water shortages and climate extremes which could lead to conflict over resources amongst regional water-stressed countries.  
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/17/tajikistan-water-shortages-climate-change

In declaring 2010 the Year of Ecology, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced environmental goals such as cleaning oil-polluted regions, providing clean drinking water for all, encouraging home gardens and planting three million trees.
http://en.trend.az/news/official/chronicle/1641835.html