THE UNEXPECTED CAUSES.
Billions of people around the world know and understand the causes of climate change. Emissions from cars, power plants, factories emit CO2, which absorbs heat and causes temperatures to rise. But what other causes are unexpectedly causing our planet to warm?
Raising Cattle.
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Yes, really. Raising cattle and other livestock contributes 14% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. If cows were their own country, it would be the third most polluting nation in the world. This is partly due to cattle ranchers that cut down thousands of trees for grazing pastures, lowering the amount of carbon that area can absorb. In fact, 80% of Amazon rainforest deforestation is due to cattle ranchers. Biodiverse ecosystems are destroyed because cows need huge amounts of land, which spells danger for forests, wetlands, and savannas.
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Livestock pastures take up a staggering 30 percent of ice-free land, much of which is used for cattle. When compared to chickens and pigs, cows need twice as much land and twenty times as much land as the equivalent amount of soybeans.
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A single cow releases 220 pounds of methane each year. This is due to a process called ‘enteric fermentation, where microbes break down the grass in the cow's stomach, producing methane gas as a by-product. The cow then belches that out. That methane lingers in the atmosphere for a shorter timeframe than carbon, but is more potent, absorbing heat about 200 times more efficiently than carbon.
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A by-product of cows is manure or poop. When huge factory farms lump massive amounts of manure together, it releases carbon dioxide, along with methane and nitrous oxide.
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Additionally, when cattle are raised in tropical regions, they tend to release more carbon and methane because they produce less meat and milk, making it longer for them to get to market. Some places produce cattle, but don’t use much of it, such as India. This is very inefficient and environmentally damaging.
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 Image by Alessio Soggetti |  Image by Brady Bellini |  Image by Paul Earle |
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 Image by Alejandro Contreras |  Image by Laura College |  Image by SAIRA |
 Image by Deidre Schwartz |  Image by Omer Salom |
Disastrous Desertification:
About 66% of Earth’s land is turning into desert, it is appearing in places that were once sprawling with luscious grasses and trees. Caused by the gradual breakdown of rock and soil, and a loss in vital nutrients for plants.
The decrease in soil fertility leads to a decline in vegetation and an increase in wildfires. Desertification is like a domino effect. When people use fire to burn grasslands in order to deal with oxidation, the carbon held in plants is released into the atmosphere. That leads to further climate change and increased desertification. It also means that the ground left after the burning is bare, making it more vulnerable to denuding.
This poses a threat to economically vulnerable areas. In Africa, for example, desertification has taken a huge toll on its inhabitants. On that continent, around 46% of the landmass is affected by desertification. For farmers, it causes their land to become compact and hardened, meaning they won’t be able to farm efficiently. In fact, the land that farmers use is practically a semi-desert! This all contributes to the distressing food insecurity issue there.
Particular areas that are vulnerable to desertification are drylands and the aforementioned grasslands, where bare soil and algae are found in vast quantities. That’s a recipe for disaster because those factors increase runoff and evaporation. It is the cancer of desertification that we don’t recognize.
Let’s put the burning of grasslands into context. Igniting one hectare of grassland is equal to the carbon emissions of 6,000 cars. In Africa alone, 1 billion hectares of grassland is being burned every year. Yes, that’s billion with a 'b'.
