The UN Is Lactose Intolerant

The UN report on global warming (mentioned previously here) has some fascinating stuff about the number one polluter on the planet. No, not Hollywood celebrities with their private jets, but cows:

Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment. It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.

A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs.

The 400-page report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, also surveys the damage done by sheep, chickens, pigs and goats. But in almost every case, the world's 1.5 billion cattle are most to blame. Livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

I wonder, however, if the report bothers to look at the nutritional plusses brought by the cows. Is it possible that the bonuses from human and animal nutrition attributed to cows outweigh whatever pollution their care and feeding may create?