Meat, Milk and Climate

by Risto Isomäki

According to FAO livestock and other farm animals produce 18 per cent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Other organizations have said that the figure might be considerably higher. A report by the world-famous Worldwatch institute concluded that animal husbandry might actually produce more than 50 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions that can be attributed to human activities. What is the truth between these conflicting views?

Meat, Milk & Climate explains why some of the claims of the Worldwatch Institute are genuinely controversial, and will remain so, even though many of its points are valid and cannot really be denied.

More importantly, the book argues that even the Worldwatch Institute has not taken into account all the important sources of greenhouse gas emissions that should be attributed, at least partly, on meat production. The book summarizes the results of new studies that have already been made on these emissions and points out key areas which have scarcely been touched by scientific research attention.

Meat, Milk & Climate might well be the most comprehensive analysis this far about an important subject that connects climate change with water and animal welfare politics, public health and the efforts to limit the pollution of lakes, rivers and shallow seas.

Risto Isomäki is a rewarded and acclaimed science and science fiction writer and an environmental activist. Isomäki has written nine novels and approximately twenty non-fiction books. His works have focused on world hunger, food- producing trees, global warming, nuclear power
and renewable energy. His books have been published in fourteen South Asian and European languages.

Genres: Nonfiction

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Risto Isomäki is a Finnish environmental activist and author of science fiction and nonfiction books. His 2005 novel Sarasvatin hiekkaa was nominated for the Finlandia Prize in 2005 and won the Tähtivaeltaja award in 2006.

Reviews

[Liisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you´re interested in the effects animal agriculture has on the environment, I´d highly recommend that you read Meat, Milk and Climate. It focuses on the aspects that are usually ignored and I found the reading experience very eye opening, even though I thought I was already well educated on the numerous problems animal production creates.

[Wille · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subject of this book is tremendously important mut often ignored in public discussion and legislation. Book summarises a vast amount of latest scientific knowledge and is reasonably easy-to-understand. As a non-native English speaker I often had to use dictionary (words like bowel, manure, eutrophication etc. were not familiar to me) but I’m sure that for native speakers and people familiar with agriculture related vocabulary this won’t be a problem.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in climate change and how to stop it. For such a short book (only 126 pages!) you’ll find huge amount of new knowledge that you can’t find anywhere else (at least in such a compact from). 5/5

[Johanna Ilen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a lot of numbers and details - this is science, not opinions. Important especially now and this was written before the Covid-19 pandemic and 2023 large forest fires across the Mediterranean region. Isomäki draws the connections between meat and fish production and pandemics, green house gases, global warming and water use, to name just a few. He goes through how the role of meat production in all this should be calculated.

What’s frustrating and hope giving at the same time is that we know many of the keys to the solution for global warming, but we just don’t see the urgency clearly enough to change our ways.

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Русский перевод оставляет желать лучшего…

[Gabriele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important and alarming.

[Aivars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering story about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.