From Inside Climate News 12.23.23
Reducing Methane From Livestock Is Critical for Stabilizing the Climate, but Congress Continues to Block Farms From Reporting Emissions
Agriculture, largely livestock production, accounts for about 37 percent of global methane emissions. In the United States, agriculture accounts for roughly 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And right now, reducing methane is the world’s best, most expedient strategy for quickly staving off atmospheric calamity.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, for decades, struggled to regulate agricultural pollution.
“It speaks to their political power,” said Patty Lovera, a policy advisor for the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment. “Regulation is a third rail.”
insideclimatenews.org/…
From the UN Environment Programme website
Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here’s how to reduce them.
Agriculture is the predominant source.
Livestock emissions – from manure and gastroenteric releases – account for roughly 32 per cent of human-caused methane emissions. Population growth, economic development and urban migration have stimulated unprecedented demand for animal protein and with the global population approaching 10 billion, this hunger is expected to increase by up to 70 per cent by 2050.
Methane is the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a hazardous air pollutant and greenhouse gas, exposure to which causes 1 million premature deaths every year. Methane is also a powerful greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
www.unep.org/…
From Earth Org 10.27.22
3 Ways to Effectively Reduce Methane Emissions From Cows
1. Switching to A Plant-Based Diet
2. Altering Animal Feed to Cut Emissions from Cows
3. Introduce A Methane Tax
earth.org/…
From The Guardian 10.27.21
What’s the beef with cows and the climate crisis?
About a third of human-caused methane emissions come from livestock, mostly from beef and dairy cattle, produced in the digestive process that allows ruminants (hoofed animals including cows, sheep and goats with four-part stomachs) to absorb plants.
Although methane breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere, it is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
“Cutting methane is the biggest opportunity to slow warming between now and 2040,” Durwood Zaelke, a lead reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in August.
www.theguardian.com/...