Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.

A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.

The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.

Livestock also produces more than 100 other polluting gases, including more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, one of the main causes of acid rain.

Ranching, the report adds, is "the major driver of deforestation" worldwide, and overgrazing is turning a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert.Cows also soak up vast amounts of water: it takes a staggering 990 litres of water to produce one litre of milk.

Wastes from feedlots and fertilisers used to grow their feed overnourish water, causing weeds to choke all other life. And the pesticides, antibiotics and hormones used to treat them get into drinking water and endanger human health.

The pollution washes down to the sea, killing coral reefs and creating "dead zones" devoid of life. One is up to 21,000sqkm, in the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the waste from US beef production is carried down the Mississippi.

The report concludes that, unless drastic changes are made, the massive damage done by livestock will more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases.

But this is another human-created problem... The Multinational Corporations such as McDonalds and BK are the ones who are creating the deforestation problems and bunging cows into environments where cows arent really meant to be... The unnatural diets being fed to cows as well (cows are herbivores and in many cases, particularly in factory farming, they are being fed non-vegetarian diets..) is more than likely contributing to the problem because their bodies are NOT MEANT TO PROCESS the sorts of feed that is being fed to them...

 

Makes for an eye-grabbing headline "Cows more damaging than cars" so that gives the impression that this isn't yet another problem that's being created by our habits and the way we are destroying the planet.... Let's not blame the cows, it's self-centred human greed that is fundamentally causing this, like everything else, if people didn't eat at McDonalds or Burger King, I very much doubt half of these problems would occur....

But this is another human-created problem... The Multinational Corporations such as McDonalds and BK are the ones who are creating the deforestation problems and bunging cows into environments where cows arent really meant to be... The unnatural diets being fed to cows as well (cows are herbivores and in many cases, particularly in factory farming, they are being fed non-vegetarian diets..) is more than likely contributing to the problem because their bodies are NOT MEANT TO PROCESS the sorts of feed that is being fed to them...

 

Makes for an eye-grabbing headline "Cows more damaging than cars" so that gives the impression that this isn't yet another problem that's being created by our habits and the way we are destroying the planet.... Let's not blame the cows, it's self-centred human greed that is fundamentally causing this, like everything else, if people didn't eat at McDonalds or Burger King, I very much doubt half of these problems would occur....

 

Couldn't agree more...

But this is another human-created problem... The Multinational Corporations such as McDonalds and BK are the ones who are creating the deforestation problems and bunging cows into environments where cows arent really meant to be... The unnatural diets being fed to cows as well (cows are herbivores and in many cases, particularly in factory farming, they are being fed non-vegetarian diets..) is more than likely contributing to the problem because their bodies are NOT MEANT TO PROCESS the sorts of feed that is being fed to them...

 

Makes for an eye-grabbing headline "Cows more damaging than cars" so that gives the impression that this isn't yet another problem that's being created by our habits and the way we are destroying the planet.... Let's not blame the cows, it's self-centred human greed that is fundamentally causing this, like everything else, if people didn't eat at McDonalds or Burger King, I very much doubt half of these problems would occur....

 

I have to totally agree

also in agreement with scott..