Posted on 02/20/2007 7:26:32 AM PST by Neville72
As Congress begins to tackle the causes and cures of global warming, the action focuses on gas-guzzling vehicles and coal-fired power plants, not on lowly bovines.
Yet livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. And as meat becomes a growing mainstay of human diet around the world, changing what we eat may prove as hard as changing what we drive.
It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about flatulence and manure of grass-chewing cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create arable land for feed crops, is a big part. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, to run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water.
"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," Henning Steinfeld, senior author of the report, said when the FAO findings were released in November.
Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that's more than the emissions caused by transportation.
The latter two gases are particularly troubling even though they represent far smaller concentrations in atmosphere than CO2, which remains the main global warming culprit. But methane has 23 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2 and nitrous oxide has 296 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Vegetarians are to blame for global warming?
posted (dupe)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787705/posts
Eat more vegetarians.
"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," Henning Steinfeld
Theres no way on earth you can avoid being a monsterously annoying pissy hump with a name like Henning Steinfeld. Its nice to see that he just embraces his lot in life, rather than fighting against it.
And yet they will try their damnedest, using every aspect of the federal government they can muster.
Damned socialist bastards!
ping
Ya'll need a permit to poop. TMDL = Poop/Methane
(I had to post this whole page because the EPA moved the webpage...somewhere else.)
Note: This information is provided for reference purposes only. Although the information provided here was accurate and current when first created, it is now outdated. |
ABSTRACT: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed revisions to existing regulations for administering the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified a range of issues with respect to the proposed TMDL rule. EPA and USDA convened a process to review and discuss these issues with the goal of resolving the issues prior to final issuance of the regulations. This paper, which has been prepared jointly by EPA and USDA, describes the agreement between the two agencies concerning development of final TMDL regulations.
Congress established the TMDL program in the CWA of 1972. EPA's early work to implement the Act focused on establishing effluent limitations through National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for point sources like factories and wastewater treatment plants. Lawsuits filed against the EPA in the late 1980's and 1990's, however, have compelled the development of TMDLs on specific schedules and for all impaired waters, including waters impaired by nonpoint sources of pollution (e.g. agriculture and forestry).
To improve implementation of the TMDL program, EPA convened a Federal Advisory Committee and proposed amendments to existing TMDL and NPDES regulations in the Federal Register on August 23, 1999.
The EPA and USDA agree that State governments and local citizens should take the lead in developing pollution budgets for impaired waterways. To enhance flexibility in State programs, the following revisions are expected to be included in the final TMDL rule:
(2) eliminate the requirement that States identify "threatened" waters;
(3) lengthen the time period for States to develop periodic lists of impaired waters from two years to four years;
(4) grant States up to 15 years to develop TMDLs for their impaired waters;
(5) do not impose a deadline for attainment of water quality goals; and
(6) drop the proposal to require new discharges to polluted waters to obtain "offsets" for new pollution.
2) Reducing Agricultural Impacts on Water Quality
Two general forms of agricultural runoff, "return flows from irrigated agriculture" and "agricultural stormwater discharges," are statutorily exempt from NPDES permit requirements and treatment as point sources. However, USDA and the agricultural community had concerns that the EPA proposal moved away from traditional notions of what is a nonpoint source of pollution and strategies for reducing impacts through voluntary efforts and Best Management Practices (BMPs). EPA and USDA agree that voluntary and incentive-based approaches are the best way to address nonpoint source pollution. Water quality improvements that farmers make through Federal conservation programs, or on their own initiative, will be given due credit in the development of TMDLs. If a farmer will invest in voluntary conservation practices to improve water quality the "pollution budget" will recognize those investments in developing a strategy for future cleanup. Under the EPA proposal, States have the flexibility to allocate pollution load reductions between nonpoint and point sources as they consider appropriate and are not required to allocate pollution reductions to specific categories (e.g. agriculture) in proportion to pollution contributions.
USDA and EPA have developed a modified approach that grants States flexibility in designing their TMDL program. Under this approach, no NPDES permits will be required for point sources of polluted stormwater from forestry operations for five years from publication of the final rule. During that time, EPA will work with the USDA and the public to develop guidance for States to follow in designing and adopting forestry BMP programs for the protection of water quality.
In States that develop and maintain forestry BMP programs that are recognized by EPA as adequate (i.e. generally consistent with this guidance) forest operations will have no exposure to NPDES permit requirements. States will be encouraged to grant forest operators that are implementing BMPs in good faith an exemption from any directly enforceable State water quality standards. Since existing Federal law requires forest operations on National Forest System lands to be conducted consistent with water quality requirements, operations conducted on these lands will be exempt from NPDES authority.
The idea is that forest operators in States with approved programs will know what is expected of them, what BMPs are effective in reducing pollution and need to be implemented. If for some reason the implementation of the core set of BMPs results in a pollution problem then the State must commit to refining or better tailoring the BMPs as necessary to attain water quality goals.
Only if a State does not have an approved forestry BMP program after five years, will the State or EPA have the discretion to issue NPDES permits in limited cases where the operation results in a discharge that causes water pollution problems. Any NPDES permits that are issued by EPA will call for implementation of BMPs, as opposed to attainment of numerical effluent limitations; EPA expects that State NPDES permit authorities will follow this approach. States will not be required to issue NPDES permits to forest operations discharging polluted stormwater; it will be a matter of their discretion. Dischargers that are not required to get a permit will not be subject to citizen or government enforcement action under the Clean Water Act.
States have identified a need for increased funding to support more complete assessment of the condition of waters and development of TMDLs for polluted waters. Adequate funding of the TMDL program is key to its implementation. The EPA is currently developing estimates of the overall cost of the TMDL program and the analysis will be available when the final rule is published. The President's FY 2001 budget increases funding for state administration of the TMDL program by $45 million. The budget also increases funding for State programs to reduce polluted runoff by $50 million. USDA agricultural conservation programs are dramatically enhanced by the FY 2001 budget. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) would be increased from $200 million to $325 million. Continuous sign up provisions of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) would be funded with $125 million in both FY 2001 and FY 2002. Finally, under the President's budget the acreage included in the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) is increased by over 200,000 acres in the next several years. This kind of Federal budget response is necessary to provide State and local partners the tools to successfully build their TMDL programs.
Gore Syndrome = a particularly nasty and chronic mental health issue manifesting itself in delusions of grandeur, acute irrational phobias and an obsessive/compulsive need to lord over people and order them about.
The syndrome is communicable through casual human contact and has so far resisted all attempts at treatment.
Pre-frontal labotomies and/or electroshock therapy may be indicated.
I fart on your global warming!
I am just too old for this nonsense.
Yet livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. And as meat becomes a growing mainstay of human diet around the world, changing what we eat may prove as hard as changing what we drive.
Especially true considering that getting a vegetarian to eat more beef to help us get rid of them critters will be next to impossible.
More useless bureaucrats creating more useless regulation that might not make a damn bit of difference in the end.
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