MAKING CATTLE MORE SUSTAINABLE

 ENVIRONMENTALISM

WHAT IS WRONG WITH CATTLE RAISING ? 

HOW ARE COWS  AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT ?

 WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REDUCE THEIR PULLUTING EFFECT ?  

They release methane . 

READ 

Cows and climate change | UC Davis

Making cattle more sustainable

• by Amy Quinton
 
• June 27, 2019

Inside the University of California, Davis, a Holstein cow has its head and neck sealed airtight inside a large, clear-plastic chamber that resembles an incubator for newborns. While giant tubes above the chamber pump air in and push air out, the cow calmly stands and eats her feed. Equipment inside a nearby trailer spits out data.

This is how Frank Mitloehner measures gases that come from cows’ stomachs and ultimately contribute to global warming. Quantifying these emissions is key to mitigating them, and Mitloehner is one of several UC Davis researchers investigating economical ways to make livestock production more environmentally sustainable around the globe.

Frank Mitloehner, UC Davis professor and air quality specialist, is researching ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cows. In this experiment, he's added an essential oil to the cow's feed. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

The plastic chambers help measure the amount of gases coming from the cow's stomach more precisely. Each year, one cow can belch 220 pounds of methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

 

READ MORE: Unfold, the official UC Davis podcast, examines the bad rap cattle receive as an unfriendly producer of climate-changing greenhouse gas.

Cattle are the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane. Methane from cattle is shorter lived than carbon dioxide but 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere, said Mitloehner, a professor and air quality specialist in the Department of Animal Science.

With the escalating effects of climate change, that fact has advocates urging the public to eat less beef. They contend it’s an unsustainable diet in a world with a population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050.

Mitloehner has openly challenged this view, writing in a recent commentary for The Conversationthat “forgoing meat is not the environmental panacea many would have us believe.”

Cows and other ruminants account for just 4 percent of all greenhouse gases produced in the United States, he said, and beef cattle just 2 percent of direct emissions.

Better breeding, genetics and nutrition have increased the efficiency of livestock production in the U.S. In the 1970s, 140 million head of cattle were needed to meet demand. Now, just 90 million head are required. At the same time, those 90 million cattle are producing more meat.

“We’re now feeding more people with fewer cattle,” Mitloehner said.

The global problem

Shrinking livestock’s carbon hoofprint worldwide is a big challenge. Livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases.

India, for example, has the world’s largest cattle population, but the lowest beef consumption of any country. As a result, cows live longer and emit more methane over their lifetime. In addition, cows in tropical regions produce less milk and meat, so it takes them longer to get to market.

CONSERVE ENERGY 25 WAYS TO REDUCE

 CONSERVE ENERGY 

We often talk about replacing fossile fuels . That this will clean up our planet . But we should also discuss another form of energy : 

CONSERVE ENERGY 

Read  what we can do 

 https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-easy-ways-to-reduce-landfill-waste.php

EXTINCTION OF SPECIES BY PROF ALEJANDRO ALTIMIR

 SOME SPEICES HAVE BEEN DISAPPEARING . OTHERS WILL HABEEN WIPED OUT FOR GOOD BY GLOBAL CLIMATE 

Mass Lizard Extinctions Looming; Global Warming Blamed

One in five lizard species predicted to vanish by 2080.

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published May 13, 2010

Lounging in the shade may sound soothing, but it could be the death of many lizards if global warmingcontinues at current rates.

As temperatures inch upward, the reptiles rest more and hunt less. As a result, 20 percent of lizard species could go extinct by 2080, a new study says.

No matter what we do to fight global warming, at least 6 percent of lizard species will go extinct by then, due to the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, the study says.

"We've committed ourselves to 6 percent," said lead study author Barry Sinervo, a herpetologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "That's our fault, and there's nothing we can do."

And those percentages are conservative, Sinervo said. For example, the study doesn't account for threats such as competition between lizard species or the effects of global warming-caused water shortages.

David Wake, who wasn't involved in the new study, agreed that the findings are far from exaggerated. "It's frightening," the University of California, Berkeley, zoologist said. "But it's reasonable."

Global Warming to Starve Lizards to Death?

The study team calculated extinction risks for more than a thousand lizard species around the globe for their study, to be published in the journal Sciencetomorrow.

The research was prompted by the discovery that 50 percent or more of the local populations of certain species had gone extinct in parts of Mexico and Europe.

The team suspected global warming was to blame, because the lizard-population crashes had generally occurred in areas with the warmest springs—when lizards reproduce.

To test their global warming hypothesis, the researchers created pseudo-lizards out of temperature gauges and painted pipe. The researchers placed the devices at four sites in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula: two sites where blue spiny lizards are thriving and two where the species has gone locally extinct.

Unlike mammals, lizards and other reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning they can't regulate their body temperatures and so must seek shade when it gets too hot.

Where the blue spiny lizards are still living, the spring temperatures were such that the lizards should have only had to seek shelter from the sun for about four hours a day, the gauges suggested.

But where the lizard had already gone locally extinct, the spring temperature was so high it would have dictated that the lizards spend most of the day hiding from the sun rather than hunting.

That much downtime means the lizards will "pretty much be starving to death" and not laying eggs, said Sinervo, whose study was partly funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Lizard Extinctions Predicted

Next the team set out to determine whether their findings held up at a global scale.

The scientists created a computer model incorporating temperature data back to 1975, global warming prediction data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the maximum temperatures different lizard species can withstand.

The model calculated the number of hours each day that a lizard species should be incapacitated due to heat as well as the hottest temperatures for different parts of the Earth in the past, present, and future.

The model accurately predicted specific locations where lizard species are known to have gone locally extinct in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

Certain Lizards Especially at Risk

Global warming will hit lizards in the Amazon and Madagascar especially hard, the computer model predicted.

"The number of local extinctions we're seeing [in the Amazon], based on the model, is through the roof," Sinervo said. "It's 60, 70, 80 percent even in some places."

And because Amazon lizards are relatively poorly documented, "we don't even know all the different species that we're going to lose," he added.

Another especially vulnerable category is lizards that give birth to live young, including the blue spiny lizard, which Sinervo studied in Mexico.

Live-birth lizards "had to evolve slightly lower body temperatures, because if it's too high, the babies might die or develop developmental abnormalities," Sinervo explained.

Bigger Than Lizards

The new study underscores that global warming isn't just a lizard problem, saidWarren Porter, a zoologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Many people might consider changes to lizard populations of small importance," said Porter, who wasn't involved in the study.

But, he pointed out, "another major group of cold-blooded animals, the pollinating insects, are also subject to the same constraints that lizards are."

The loss of pollinators, he added, would be devastating to the human food supply.

Porter also noted that the team looked mainly at small lizards. The extinction risks for larger lizards, such as the Komodo dragon, could be much higher, he said.

"Larger species of animals are even more vulnerable to heat stress," Porter said, "because they have fewer places to find shade and water on a landscape that is drying out."

 

 THE PROS OF ORGANIC FARMING 

ENGLISH STUDIES CENTER 

What  are the effects of uncontrolled farming on the soil and on the environment in general ? 

what benefits does organic farming yield? 

Organic farming yields such vital benefits as preservation of soil's organic composition. ... Maintain and improve fertility, soil structure and biodiversity, and reduce erosion. Reduce the risks of human, animal, and environmental exposure to toxic materials.

Organic farming has a smaller carbon footprint, conserves and builds soil health, replenishes natural ecosystems for cleaner water and air, all without toxic pesticide residues.

As organic vwegetables are harder to obtain because the produce is smaller,  they are more expensive . This leads to fewer `people consuming them 

Free range hens are not reared in captivity but in the open air, therefore they are healthier. However,  their price is still high for the average consumer 

CAUSALITY RELATIONSHIP 

A BRINGS ABOUT  B

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   CAUSES  B TO HAPPEN 

B SPRINGS FROM A 

   IS CAUSED BY A 

  STEMS FROM