BACKGROUND

The Climate Crisis is here. Climate Change is real and is human caused. Only rapid comprehensive action to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to below zero can restore the Earth’s atmosphere to its former balance that allows for human activity in the absence of frequent extreme weather events. The sources of these high emissions of GHGs (carbon dioxide - CO2 , Methane – CH4, Nitrous Oxide – N2O, and some other industrial gases such as refrigerants) are all from human activity. The three largest sources are the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation. The agricultural system is both a source of GHGs and increasingly a means for permanently removing GHGs (sink) from the atmosphere. Management of agricultural soils can vary greatly, releasing GHGs or sequestering them. Currently approximately 50% of all GHGs emitted by agriculture are related to soil management, including tillage, fertilizer use and irrigation. Approximately 25% of agricultural emissions are methane from the normal digestive process of cattle. Livestock manure management contributes about 12% of agricultural emissions. The remainder of emissions comes from rice cultivation, other fertilizer applications that release CO2 and crop residue burning. All told, agriculture produces approximately 11% of total human caused GHGs.