FARRUKH

“Livestock as contributor to global warming and effects

of global warming”

Muhammad Irfan
07-arid-1716
DVM(5TH)
PMAS UNIVERSITY OF ARID AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY
RAWALPINDI
FARRUKH
Introduction
— Livestock are main contributer to the global
warming,even the contribution of livestock in
global warning is more than the
transportation.
— This is said in a new report from united
nation."Lvestock are one of the most
significant contrbuters to todays most serous
environmental problems" said Henning
Steinfeld, a senior UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO)official.
— Livestock contribute in global warming
through dfferent ways,by producing dfferent
gases like methane,CO2,nitrous oxide,
ammonia etc.
— Livestock also lead to deforestraton whch
lead to global warmng,
— If so..what are its effects on society?
— And what are the possible solution?
Livestock & global warming

The animals which

contribute to global
warming are mainly;
— Cattle
— Buffalo
— Sheep and goats.
— Camel
Among these animals
cattle are the main
contributer to global
warming.
 Causes of global warming
— Livestock contribution to global warming is more than
transportation.
— Livestock contribute to global warming through different ways
like..
• By producing certain gases like methane,CO2,nitrous
oxide,ammonia ect.
• By producing a large amount of manure.
• By the dead animals.
Causes..
— Mainly due to poor quality
forages which throw their
digestive system out of balance.
— Prevailing method of producing
meat,that is crowding animal
together in factory farm.
— Storing their waste in giant
lagoon and cutting down forest
to grow crops to feed them.
— Missing of certain protein to
ruminants diets,can increase
methane production.
Livestock's long shadow—Environmental
Issues and Options
— A recently report from united nation.
— According to report livestock production
worldwide is responsible for 18%
greenhouse gas emission.
— Vast cattle herd emit more nasty
greenhouse gases than all kind of
transport.
— Livestock sector accounts for 9% of
CO2,65% of nitrous oxide and 37% of
methane production.
— It also generates 64% of human related
ammonia.
— These portion of global warming gases are
created by bovine persistent
belching,flatulence and from by products.
Sun Greenhouse Effect
Cont..
— LS flatulence and manure emit more
than 1/3rd of methane which warm the
world 20 times more than CO2.
— Cattle produce more than 100 other
polluting gases,including 2/3rd of the
world emission of ammonia,one of the
main cause of acidic rain.
— LS use 30% of the earth land
surface,and more land is used for
their feed production.
— So forest clearing for LS pasture lead
to deforestration,a major source of
global warming.
 Cont..
— The report notes that contribution LS to global warming
will increase in coming years..
— Because global meat production is projected to more
than double from 229 million ton from 1999/2000 to 456
million ton in 2050.
— So there is a need to reduce the meat consumption.
Earth atmospheric gases
— Nitrogen

— Oxygen

— Carbon dioxide

— Methane

— Nitrous oxide
Methane
— Methane is a large component of livestock related
green house gas emissions.
— Methane is produced as a result of anaerobic
fermentation in the rumen and the hind-gut.
Microbial enzymatic activity in the rumen (and
salivary enzymes), hydrolyses much of the dietary
organic matter to amino acids and simple sugars.
— As a contributor to global warming, methane
(CH4) is second only to carbon dioxide, and
accounts for 16% of all greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions.
— According to FAO, the world livestock population
in 2004 comprised of 1,365 million cattle 172
million buffaloes 1,059.8 million sheep, 790 million
goats and 943.8 million pigs. The estimated CH4
emission from enteric fermentation is 17–30% of
global production.
— These products are then anaerobically fermented
to volatile fatty acids (VFA), hydrogen and CO2.
Methane

— Methane has 21 times more global waming potential than

CO2.
— In one day, a cow can emit ½ pound of methane into the
air. Imagine 1.3 billion cattle each burping methane
several times per minute!
— Dairy cows produces Methane 118 kg/year.
— Emissions of methane and nitrous oxide contribute
significantly to total greenhouse gas emissions and
radiative forcing because each gas is more effective at
trapping heat than CO2.
— Nitrous oxide has been steadily increasing in concentration
since pre-industrial times, however, the increase in the
methane concentration in the atmosphere has been
slowing in recent years
Methane is on the rise since 1750
Carbon dioxide
• As living organisms undergo
respiration (the metabolism of
sugars to produce energy for
basic metabolic needs), or as
organisms die and
decompose, the carbon
compounds are broken down
and add CO2 to the
atmosphere.
• From fossils fuels.
• It is a major threat for global
warming.
This graph shows the increase of carbon dioxide in the air over the past
few centuries
Nitrous oxide
— Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse
gas, accounting for around
6% of the heating effect of
greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.
• Nitrous oxide gas risen by
more than 15% since 1750.
• Nitrous oxide also causes
ozone depletion.
• A new study suggest that N2O
emission currently is the
single most important ozone-
depleting substance (ODS)
emission and is expected to
remain the largest throughout
the 21st century.
Nitrous Oxide has been on the rise since 1750
Effects of Global Warming
— More health concerns.
— As temperatures increase towards the poles,
similar to farmland, insects and other pests
migrate towards Earth's poles.
— These insects and pests could be allowed to
migrate up to 550 Km or 550 miles.
— Some insects carry diseases such as malaria
and dengue fever.
— This could lead to 50 to 80 million additional
cases of Malaria annually, a 10-15% increase.
— Physician Paul Epstein, of Harvard's School of
Public Health, says "Climate change is already
a factor in terms of the distributions of malaria,
dengue fever, and cholera."
Effects..
— Most obvious health effect is directly from the
heat itself.
— With an increase in heat waves, there will be
more people who will suffer from heatstroke,
heart attacks and other ailments aggravated by
the heat.
— In July 1995, a heat wave killed more than 700
people in the Chicago area alone."
— Hot conditions could also cause smoke particles
and noxious gases to linger in the air and
accelerate chemical reactions that generate other
pollutants
— This leads to an increase in risk of respiratory
diseases like bronchitis and asthma.
— If this is happening already from heat, imagine
what would occur in the future with global
warming???
 Effects..
— Global warming causes the oceans to warm and
expand, inducing a rise in sea level.
— The rising waters could take away land
inhabited by people, forcing them to move,like
situation in Bangladesh.
— Bangladesh cannot afford to build barriers to
hold back the sea, so people would have to
move inland, increasing the populations density
and leading to an increase in hunger and
disease.
— They are a nation of 1190 islands with an
average height of about 1.5 meters above sea
level.
— If the sea level rises, more than 200,000 people
will have to abandon their homes.
Ice Sheets Melting
Wild life effects
— Polar bear
§ Require pack ice to live.
§ Might eventually go
extinct in the wild.
— Sea turtle
§ Breed on same island as
their birth.
§ Could go extinct on same
island as beaches are
flooded.
§ Other species may go
extinct as rainfall pattern
changes.
Solutions to reduced global
warming caused by animals
— Improve the diet of animals.
— Livestock nutrition experts have
demonstrated that by making minor
improvements in animal diets (like providing
nutrient-laden salt licks) they can cut enteric
methane by half.
— Other practices, like adding certain proteins
to ruminant diets, can reduce methane
production per unit of milk or meat by a
factor of six.
— Enteric methane emissions can also be
substantially reduced when cattle are
regularly rotated onto fresh pastures.
— Selecting forages and concentrates high in
non fiber carbohydrates could
— reduce methane emissions.
Solutions..
— Properly managing and disposing of the
animal manure.
— Properly buried the dead animals.
— Avoid the excessive feeding of animals.
— Keep the high producer only.
— Increasing productivity per cow will reduce
methane emissions per kg of milk and total
farm GHG emissions.
— A lower culling rate will reduce farm
methane and total GHG emissions.
— Diets with a high proportion of concentrates
that promote a high propionate
— Type of ruminal fermentation are conducive
to reducing ruminal methane production, but
the effect on total farm GHG emissions may
be less.
References
— http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/1990_00_report/acknow_e.cfm
— http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/canada_2001_e.cfm
— Baker, S.K. 1995. Method for improving utilization of nutrients by
ruminant or ruminant like
— animal. International Patent, WO9511041.
— Abo-Omar, J.M. (1989). Methane losses by steers fed ionophores singly
or
— alternatively. PhD Thesis. Colorado State University. Fort Collins.
— Asanuma, N., Iwamoto, M. and Hino, T. (1999). Effect of the addition of
— fumerate on methane production by ruminal microorganisms in vitro.
— Carmean, B.R. (1991). Persistance of monensin effects in nutrient flux
in
— steers. M.S. Thesis. Colorodo State University. Fort Collins.
— Boadi, D.A, K.M. Wittenberg and P.W. McCaughey. 2002b. Effect of
grain supplementation on
— methane production of grazing steers using the sulfur hexaflouride
tracer gas technique.

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