Climate Change Efforts Need to Focus on Livestock and Farming

Climate change is a huge issue, and is getting more attention than ever as policy makers try to think of ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Now, though, scientists have shown that they've paid inadequate attention to other greenhouse gases associated with livestock that may be more dangerous in the long run.

In order to mitigate climate change, it will be necessary to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gases. More specifically, cutting releases of methane and nitrous oxide will be crucial. These two gases, pound-for-pound, trap more heat than CO2.

In order to better understand our warming climate, researchers examined previous work. More specifically, they synthesized knowledge on greenhouse gases, climate change and food and environmental issues. In all, they drew from the Food and Agricultural Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and peer-reviewed publications.

"Because the Earth's climate may be near a tipping point to major climate change, multiple approaches are needed for mitigation," said William Ripple, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We clearly need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to cut CO2 emissions. But that addresses only part of the problem. We also need to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gases to lessen the likelihood of us crossing this climatic threshold."

In fact, the researchers found that methane, which is the second most abundant greenhouse gas, may be much higher than previously thought. Among the largest human-related sources of methane are animals such as sheep, goats and cattle and fossil fuel extraction and combustion. An easy way to cut methane is by reducing global populations of livestock--especially cattle.

"Reducing the demand for ruminant products could help to achieve substantial greenhouse gas reductions in the near-term," said Helmut Haberl, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But implementation of demand changes represent a considerable political challenge."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.