{"id":307301,"date":"2024-03-11T21:15:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T20:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=307301"},"modified":"2024-03-11T21:15:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T20:15:15","slug":"no-ap-new-york-lawsuit-claims-about-beef-and-greenhouse-gases-are-bogus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=307301","title":{"rendered":"No AP, New York Lawsuit Claims About Beef and Greenhouse Gases are Bogus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A story from The Associated Press<\/a> (AP) reports that New York\u2019s attorney general Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging that a meat producing company, JBS USA, was being misleading when it claimed it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. According to the lawsuit, \u201cbeef has the highest total greenhouse gas emissions of any major food commodity and beef production is linked to large-scale deforestation.\u201d This claim by James is false, and real-world data proves this to be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) own data showing beef in particular and farm production in general is not a significant contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Most climate alarmists immediately cite methane and beef production as a major factor, but the data shows it isn\u2019t really a problem at all. From Climate at a Glance: Livestock and Methane<\/a><\/em> we learn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate activists often claim that ranchers, livestock, and meat production are a leading cause of rising greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has compiled information on greenhouse gas emissions by source. According to EPA, beef production accounts for 2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, while livestock production accounts for less than 4 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, U.S. agricultural crop production emits more greenhouse gases than total livestock production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the figure below, which looks at all greenhouse gas emissions by sector in the United States, note that beef production is less than half of the entire livestock sector, at just 2 percent. The data comes from EPA publication\u00a0Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions
and Sinks, 1990-2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure1 \u2013 Greenhouse gas emissions by sector in the United States. Note that beef production is less than half of the entire livestock sector, at just 2 percent. Source: Data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Graphic by Anthony Watts.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Further, note that virtually every other category compiled by the EPA has emissions far greater than that of livestock production. The lawsuit also claims deforestation is a major factor with beef production. The lawsuit apparently does not look at the actual trend in data, which is actually slightly decreasing for beef cows in the United States\u00a0according to the US Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0(USDA) and as seen in figure 2 below.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 2 \u2013 USDA cattle and cow inventories 1970-2023. Note beef cows are represented by the dark green portion of the graph, and show a slightly decreasing trend.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So with fewer beef cows, requiring less grazing acreage, there\u2019s no possibility for increased deforestation in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact the trend is opposite, according to the USDA<\/a>,  research has found that over the past 20 years, U.S. forests are growing increasingly dense across most of the nation. Also, the World Economic Forum reports<\/a> that the United States is aiming to plant 1 billion trees over the next 10 years. So even if national beef production was in fact causing deforestation, it will be mitigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But James, like many people who don\u2019t have firsthand knowledge of farming or ranching, misses this inconvenient data. Even more inconvenient is the fact that methane emissions in the United States are actually slightly down since 1990 according to this EPA data in Figure 3:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 3 \u2013 Methane emission estimates from the EPA report:\u00a0Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2021. Graph source: https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/ghgemissions\/overview-greenhouse-gases<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The bottom line is that the lawsuit by James does not have any leg to stand on when it comes to looking at data related to the claims. Beef production has little impact on the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and the issues of methane and deforestation are completely non-starters for such a lawsuit because the actual data is contrary to the claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears this lawsuit is nothing more than a climate activist looking to create yet another bogus show trial for the benefit of those that think climate change is a crisis and removing beef from the American diet is one of the ways to prevent future catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0story from The Associated Press\u00a0(AP) reports that New York\u2019s attorney general Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging that a meat producing company, JBS USA, was being misleading when it claimed it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. According to the lawsuit, \u201cbeef has the highest total greenhouse gas emissions of any major food commodity and beef production is linked to large-scale deforestation.\u201d This claim by James is false, and real-world data proves this to be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":307313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A\u00a0story from The Associated Press\u00a0(AP) reports that New York\u2019s attorney general Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging that a meat producing company, JBS USA, was being misleading when it claimed it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 20","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691827305,691827307,691819743,691818443,691818867,691827552],"class_list":["post-307301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-beef-production","tag-climate-propaganda","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","tag-new-york","tag-the-associated-press-ap","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/069bed09f-894b-450a-b29b-e03f46f83c91-jumbo16x9_AP23273805678325.webp?fit=1500%2C844&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1hWt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":253823,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253823","url_meta":{"origin":307301,"position":0},"title":"Wrong, Mayor Adams, Monitoring and Limiting Food Choice Curtails Freedom, but It Won\u2019t Stop Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/20\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"New York City Mayor Eric Adams has targeted \u201cemissions intensive\u201d food consumption for tracking and gradual government-mandated limits, in order to reduce the city\u2019s alleged climate change impacts.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide emissions\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide emissions","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-emissions"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00george-orwell-quotes-05.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00george-orwell-quotes-05.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00george-orwell-quotes-05.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00george-orwell-quotes-05.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/00george-orwell-quotes-05.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":252901,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=252901","url_meta":{"origin":307301,"position":1},"title":"Waste Not, Want Not, Still True About Food","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/14\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Eat what you want and ignore the marketing claims. 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