Before you go...
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.
"Livestock's Long Shadow: environmental issues and options". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome 2006Transportation exhaust is responsible for 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
"Livestock's Long Shadow: environmental issues and options". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome 2006Environmental Protection Agency. "Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data"Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Goodland, Robert & Anhang, Jeff. "Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are...cows, pigs and chickens?". WorldWatch. November/December 2009Hickman, Martin. "Study claims meat creates half of all greenhouse gases". Independent. November 2009Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame.
Vaidyanathan, Sayathri. "How Bad of a Greenhouse Gas is Methane? The global warming potential of the gaseous fossil fuel may be consistently underestimated". Scientific American. December 22, 2015.Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.
"Livestock' Long Shadow: environmental issues and options". FAO. Rome. 2006"Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States". U.S. Energy Information Administration. March 31, 2011Emissions for agriculture projected to increase 80% by 2050.
Tilman, David & Clark, Michael. "Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health"Energy related emissions expected to increase 20% by 2040.
"Carbon Dioxide Emissions to 2040". Energy Global. 06 January 2015"World Energy Outlook 2014 Factsheet". International Energy Agency.US Methane emissions from livestock and natural gas are nearly equal.
"Overview of Greenhouse Gases". United States Environmental Protection Agency."Key facts and findings. By the numbers: GHG emissions by livestock". FAO."Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2015". United States Environmental Protection AgencyCows produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day.
Ross, Phillip. "Cow Farts Have 'Larger Greenhouse Gas Impact' Than Previously Thought; Methane Pushes Climate Change". International Business Times. 26 November, 2013250-500 liters per cow per day, x 1.5 billion cows globally is 99 - 198.1 billion gallons. Rough average of 150 billion gallons CH4 globally per day.Miller, Scot M, et al. "Anthropegnic emissions of methane in the United States". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 110. No. 50. 18 October 2013Converting to wind and solar power will take 20+ years and roughly 43 trillion dollars.
"Infographic: How Much it Would Cost for the Entire Planet to Switch to Renewable Energy". Inhabitat. 24 September, 2013Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose. "Paris climate deal to ignite a $90 trillion energy revolution". The Telegraph. 28 October, 2015
