How do agricultural & its allied industries contribute to global warming.?

Question

related to agriculture

Answer 1

Mostly agriculture reduces greenhouse gasses by capturing C02. The biggest contribution is said to be methane gasses released by cows. I believe this is a hoax spread by politicans to differ where the real bull$hit comes from

Answer 2

I dont think agriculture per se contibutes to global warming. Its the machineries used to plow the fields od do farm work that contributes to global warming. For example, planting a crop dosen't crontibute to global warming but if you harvest your crop using a tractor, then your tractor will emit carbon monoxide etc. and that will contribute to global warming.

Now if we talk about agricultural allied industries then almost all of them contribute to global warming. An example would be a sugarcane milling plant. To extract sugar from sugarcane, you have to cook it in boilers and most milling plants use coal and trash to sustain the fire for the boilers. Smoke from this comes out in huge chimneys and contribute to global warming.

Answer 3

The most important greenhouse gas is water vapor - and plants transpire lots of water.

Vegetarians are also a problem, as they f**t a lot.

Answer 4

Actually the two largest sources of greenhouse gases related to agriculture haven't even been mentioned yet.

One is fertilizer production - roughly half of fertilizers are produced by a chemical reaction known as the "Haber process" which converts nitrogen in the air into a form usable by plants. This process requires high pressure and heat which are generated by fossil fuels (natural gas mostly). In addition, these fertilizers are generally applied at rates much higher than plants can absorb, and the excess is converted to nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The other is methane released from rice paddies, which globally accounts for much more than what is released by livestock (although livestock is higher in the US b/c we don't grow much rice). Because fields are flooded to suppress weeds, little oxygen reaches the soil. Under these conditions, certain types of soil bacteria degrade organic matter (such as rice straw) into methane. This is a similar phenomena to methane bubbling out of a swamp, only in the case of a rice paddy the plants actually help to transport the methane into the atmosphere through transpiration. Methane is 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so the plants' carbon fixation doesn't come close to compensating for this effect.

It should be noted that in both cases there are farming practices which can mitigate these effects, but there needs to be a greater effort to educate and incentivize growers to adopt these practices. This is especially difficult in the case of methane emissions from rice paddies, since a majority of rice is grown in developing countries.

Answer 5

global warming is the depleting of the environment through some  environmental hazards however agric contributes through forest conservation,farming and the planting of trees around our houses inorder to reduce the effects of this hazards on the ozone layer

Answer 6

If your referring to CO2.. all I have to say is... Temperature rises then CO2 levels rise not CO2 rise then temperature rise...  So therefore the as its gotten hotter outside the CO2 levels have risen.. so s***w the CO2 bs and like everyone else has said water vapor is the most abundant gas in the greenhouse effect.   So I guess we should just wipe out the ocean if we don't want so much water vapor to help trap heat!!!!!!!!!  lol... anyway good question...

Answer 7

I've noticed that no one here has addessed the amount of methane produced by all the livestock.  Cows can produce more methane than the farm can use for power.  Many progressive farmers have started using the methane to provide power run the farms.  People always seem to forget methane as a greenhouse gas.  At least it's one we can harness for fuel.

Answer 8

Let me say first that I don't know what you consider "allied industries" so I will have to confine my answer to agriculture only.

This is not the kind of question that I like to get involved in answering, because I can see the answer that you are looking for.  There are some agriculture practices that no doubt add to the greenhouse gases.  Fuel use from land preparation, planting , harvesting, hauling the crops to market, etc. will no doubt add to the effect of global warming. Plants transpire water vapor which is a major part of the greenhouse gases.  But farming also keeps the ground covered with growing plants which use CO2 and give off O2. So I believe that overall agriculture will contribute very little to global warming.  I will admit that agriculture can, and is in many cases, be improved to make the overall contribution to global warming less.  Practicing more minimum tillage and keeping cover crops and more crop residue on the soil will help.  While global warming is a real concern, I don't see it as near the danger that alarmists, such as Al Gore, make it out to be.  So, lets say that you are right and agriculture is making a huge contribution to global warming.  What is your suggestion?  Stop using tractors and trucks?  That would cut down on agriculture and its contribution to global warming dramitcally.  It also would cut down on food production to a point that we could no longer support so large a population.  This too would help out on global warming.  I'm being sarcastic now,  but our farmers are being blamed for everything else, why not put the blame for global warming on them as well.  I am putting in a couple of sites that will no doubt give you the answer that you are looking for.  I just don't happen to agree with them, but we should look at both sides of this issue.

http://www.indsp.org/IAGW.php

http://www.nutrition4health.org/NOHAnews...

Answer 9

There are the obvious ways - tractors, trucks, etc but one thing people consider a big contributor is animals. Cows and sheep ect emit quite a lot of methane (burping and farting) which is the worst greenhouse gas.

However, as these animals only consume plants these gasses must have been consumed through plants first and then as the animal eats it, it gets converted back to the gas. As no chemical reaction is 100% efficient the amount of gas emmited from the animal is less than the amount sequestered by the plant so the environment is winning.