Elinda wrote:
RedPhoenixxx wrote:
Quote:
but it's not a global warming problem, at least factory farming isn't which is why i said.
It is a global warming problem in many ways.
Not sure how this chart will copy over, but it should be fairly reliable data.
EPA wrote:
Table 1 U.S. Methane Emissions by Source (TgCO2 Equivalents)
Source Category 1990 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Landfills 172.2 147.4 138.5 134.0 130.7 126.2 126.8 131.2
Natural Gas Systems 128.3 133.6 131.8 127.4 132.1 131.8 130.6 125.9
Enteric Fermentation 117.9 118.3 116.7 116.8 115.6 114.5 114.6 115.0
Coal Mining 81.9 62.6 62.8 58.9 56.2 55.6 52.4 53.8
Manure Management 31.2 36.4 38.8 38.8 38.1 38.9 39.3 39.1
Wastewater Treatment 24.8 31.7 32.6 33.6 34.3 34.7 35.8 36.8
Petroleum Systems 20.0 18.8 18.5 17.8 17.6 17.4 17.1 17.1
Rice Cultivation 7.1 7.5 7.9 8.3 7.5 7.6 6.8 6.9
Stationary Sources 7.8 7.4 6.9 7.1 7.3 6.7 6.4 6.7
Abandoned Coal Mines 6.1 8.1 7.2 7.3 7.7 6.9 6.4 6.4
Mobile Sources 4.8 4.0 3.9 3.6 3.4 3.1 2.9 2.7
Petrochemical Production 1.2 1.6 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.5
Iron and Steel 1.3 1.3 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.1 1.0 1.0
Agricultural Residue Burning 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.8
Total for U.S. 605.3 579.5 569.3 557.3 554.2 546.7 542.3 544.9
Source: US Emissions Inventory 2005: Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2003
Enteric Fermentation, btw, is livestock farts.
..and to get an idea of Methane's contribution to the GHG pool:
DOE wrote:
TABLE 1.
The Important Greenhouse Gases (except water vapor)
U.S. Department of Energy, (October, 2000) (1) (all concentrations expressed in parts per billion) Pre-industrial baseline Natural additions Man-made additions Total (ppb) Concentration Percent of Total
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) 288,000 68,520 11,880 368,400 99.438%
Methane (CH4) 848 577 320 1,745 0.471%
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) 285 12 15 312 0.084%
Misc. gases ( CFC's, etc.) 25 0 2 27 0.007%
Total 289,158 69,109 12,217 370,484 100.00%
So, livestock equate to approx. 21% of methane emissions, and methane accounts for just under 0.5% of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Thanks - it's nice to have raw data on how insignificant it really is.
To be fair, methane has a 21-to-1 ratio of GWP (global warming potential) compared to carbon dioxide, (http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/08_ES.pdf p.3), but given the percentage... blah. In that same document, on p.4 (presumably where your data came from), we find the table for CO2 emissions as well, which I find interesting. It doesn't paste here very well, but from 2006, we see approximate CO2 emissions of 5,983 Tg CO2 Eq., with fossil fuel burning making up about 5,638 of that. Industrial contribution as a whole is limited to 862 of that 5,638, with electricity production and transportation combining for a total of 4,184 of that 5,638.
Given those numbers, and the assumption that the majority of greenhouse gas production where cattle farming is concerned falls under either the methane contribution noted in Elinda's data or the industrial contribution noted in my reference, I fail to see how livestock farming alone can contribute to any major percent of greenhouse emissions, short of some glaring oversight in the data. Until we conquer our dependence on fossil fuel for energy and transportation, chasing after the livestock industry is quite simply, a red herring.
Edit: This data is all US data only, of course.
Edited, Apr 23rd 2008 2:18pm by BrownDuck
