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Post by Mel Mel on Jan 30, 2007 4:29:23 GMT
On Dec. 10 of last year, the environment editor of U.K.'s Independent Online posted a report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), asserting that “the world's top destroyer of the environment is not the car, or the plane, or even George Bush: It is the cow.”
According to the report, the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle have been identified as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they have been 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 FAO, 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 percent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. ...continued... www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_5106355
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