From ... in Alternative News — Dec 3, 2015

UN Climate Talks Completely Ignore The Biggest Greenhouse Gas Producing Industry?

As most of you reading this already know, world leaders, scientists, and activists from all over the world have gathered in France to discuss the issue of climate change.

It’s one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in history, and it aims to combat what many are calling the planet’s last chance to mitigate the consequences of climate change.

These talks have been going on for decades, and experts, governments, and corporations have known for a long time that there are better ways to produce energy as well as more efficient ways to fuel our transportation need, yet they still elect to remain stagnant on the issue. Animal Livestock Industry One of the most confusing elements of the climate change problem is our reticence to acknowledge the major culprit behind it. Industrial agriculture generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. Don’t believe it? You wouldn’t be the first, and that’s because the link between the livestock industry and greenhouse gas emissions has virtually been ignored by climate activists, mainstream media, and governments for decades — this includes major activist groups like Greenpeace, for example. Perhaps this year will be different, but so far, all mainstream press coverage has focused on energy and transportation. Some people are willing to face the issue head on, however. Did you know that in 2006 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions that all forms of transportation combined? Did you know that 51 percent or more, according to PETA and other sources, of global greenhouse gas emissions are by animal agriculture? (source)(source)(source)(source) There are some sources that cite that the UN report only found an 18 percent contribution. Even if it is less than 50 percent, the fact that it has not been mentioned is strange. Regardless of what the number is, we know it is a big contributor that’s never talked about.

There are billions of animals raised for food each year, and many of them go through a tremendous amount of pain, abuse, and outright torture in the process. It is undeniably horrific.

The byproduct of this mass slaughter is a mass of animal excrement which releases methane and other greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere. Methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and the half a billion chickens raised in Delaware and Maryland alone produce enough waste to fill the dome of the U.S. capital more than 50 times a year. As for cows, they emit more than 60 gallons of methane every single day.

There are currently 88 million cattle in the United States alone being raised strictly for the purpose of slaughter. You do the math. When it’s all said and done, the cows by themselves emit more methane than natural gas leaks, fracking, and landfills combined. “My calculations are that, without using any gas, or oil, or fuel ever again, from this day forward, that we would still exceed our maximum carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions... by the year 2030, without the electricity sector or energy sector even factoring into the equation. All simply by raising and eating livestock.” – Dr. Richard Oppenlander, Environmental Researcher, and author of “Comfortably Unaware” Below is a clip taken from the documentary Cowspiracy, a film dedicated to creating awareness about these facts. Look At Who Is Sponsoring The UN Climate Talk The corporate sponsors of these climate talks include Shell and Exxon Mobile, to name just a couple. How ironic is this? It’s especially confusing if you consider the fact that Exxon Mobile knew about climate change almost 40 years ago — a full 11 years before it became public knowledge — and chose to keep quiet about it. As Scientific American reports: In their eight-month-long investigation, reporters at InsideClimate News interviewed former Exxon employees, scientists and federal officials and analyzed hundreds of pages of internal documents.

They found that the company’s knowledge of climate change dates back to July 1977. . . . We are talking about ‘World Leaders’ and corporations who are not being held accountable for their complicity in this disaster. So much destruction and environmental degradation (that we have allowed) can be directly attributed to these groups, yet they are sponsoring events to combat the effects of the very problem they continue to contribute to, all while ignoring the most important factor of climate change — factory farming. It’s a little perplexing, to say the least. It is hard to believe they actually care about this planet. So what is really going on here? How can they continue to destroy our planet, pollute our environment, and prolong unnecessary wars, then come together saying we need to change? Related Article: PHOTOS: These Edgy Ads Expose The Hypocrisy Of The Corporate Sponsors For The UN Climate Change Conference The Science Professor Lennart Bengtsson, a Swedish climatologist, former director of the Max Plank Institute for Meteorology, winner of the 51st IMO Prize of the World Meterological Organization, and the one of the world’s leading climate scientists, said that: “The problem we have now in the scientific community is that some scientists are mixing up their scientific role with that of climate activist. . . . It is an indication of how science is gradually being influenced by political views.

The reality hasn’t been keeping up with the [computer] models.” (source) This is one concern I have always had when it comes to climate change. Another concern is the fact that, at least according to a new study that was recently published by NASA, Antarctica is actually gaining more ice than it has lost. NASA made the announcement after their satellites examined the heights of the region’s ice sheets, and the findings are contradicting the claim (with more than decades of research behind it) that Antarctica has been losing ice and that this loss is contributing to a rising global sea level. The paper is titled “Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses,” and was published in the Journal of Glaciology last Friday. (source) Not long ago, NASA was blasted by approximately 50 of their own personnel regarding their global warming stance. (source)(source) I am definitely not a climate change skeptic, but I am confused about the whole topic in general. Regardless of how much or how little we can agree on in this matter, however, the fact that we need to change the way we generate energy and how we eat is one hundred percent clear. That really can’t be argued. Finally, I fail to understand why Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other billionaires are not investing in technology like this: www.tewari.org I recently published an article outlining more reasons why this problem is a difficult one to entangle: NASA Says Antarctica is Gaining More Ice That It’s Losing Here’s Why It’s Confusing Additional source used that’s not cited above: http://www.fao.org/3/i3437e.pdf .

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UN Climate Talks Completely Ignore The Biggest Greenhouse Gas Producing Industry?

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