(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Though it has been known for quite some time that greenhouse gases produced by livestock are a significant contributor to global warming, the new research, published in Carbon Balance and Management, shows it is worse. A new Nasa-sponsored study shows that methane produced by livestock in 2011 was 11% higher than estimates made in 2006 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a now out-of-date estimate. Since methane is a particularly nasty greenhouse gas, the new finding means it is going to be even tougher to combat climate change than realised earlier.
There are about 1.5bn cows on the planet, each and every one of them expelling upwards of 30 to 50 gallons of methane each day. Belches are actually the primary source of cattle-produced methane, accounting for 95% of the problematic greenhouse gas. Methane is about 30 times more efficient at trapping the Sun's radiative heat than carbon dioxide over a timescale of about a century. There may be more CO2 in the atmosphere than methane, but by unit it is the more destructive greenhouse gas.
Disturbingly, the new research, which was led by Julie Wolf from the US Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Service, shows that methane, over the course of the next 100 years, will exert a 'global warming potential that's an astounding 28 times greater than the one expected from carbon dioxide. Both Nasa's Carbon Monitoring System research initiative and the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI) contributed to the study. Wolf's team re-evaluated the data used to produce the IPCC 2006 methane emissions estimates. The prior estimates were based on relatively modest rates of methane increases from 2000 to 2006, but things changed dramatically afterwards, increasing 10-fold over the course of the next 10 years. The new figures factor in an 8.4% increase in methane emissions from digestion (otherwise known as 'enteric fermentation) in dairy cows and other cattle, and a 36.7% increase in methane from manure, compared to previous IPCC-based estimates. The new report shows that methane accounted for about 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. Other human activities, such as the production and transport of gas, oil and coal, along with the decay of our organic waste, also contribute to global methane emissions.
Importantly, the new estimates are 15% higher than global estimates produced by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and 4% higher than Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research. The new research shows that methane emissions slowed in the US, Canada, and Europe, but they are rising elsewhere. Very likely, the rest of the world is catching up to first-world standards in terms of meat and dairy consumption. Ghassem Asrar, director of JGCRI and a co-author of the new study, said it was found that total livestock methane emissions have increased the most in rapidly developing regions of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. It is not immediately clear how, or even if, these revised figures will impact livestock production or public policy, but at the individual level, it suggests we should cut back on our consumption of meat and dairy products.
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