Livestock Casts Its Long Shadow Over Manitoba's Greenhouse Gas Levels
- by Larry Powell Compared to other provinces, Manitoba doesn't produce a lot of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. (Only PEI, Newfoundland and the northern Territories emit less.) But, when it comes to agriculture, we punch way above our weight. In 2004, (the latest year for which figures are available) virtually one-third of Manitoba's emissions, 32.8%, came from farming. That's the highest percentage of any province in Canada! The national average in Canada that year was just 7%. Back in 1990, Manitoba agriculture produced 4,400 kilotonnes (kt) of emissions in * carbon dioxide equivalents." By '04, that number had grown to 6,350 kt, a whopping increase of 45% (compared to the national average of 23%). Manitoba's growing populations of hogs and beef cattle are said to be behind the numbers. Those numbers are buried in the almost 500-page National Inventory Report - Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada," which Environm