Climate change and cattle farming

‘Global warming’ and ‘climate change’ have become familiar household terms. However much confusion prevails over these issues that suffer with an incomplete scientific foundation and are often influenced by politics as much as by science. Climate change has entered the public debate globally. It is widely expected to have severe social, economic and environmental effects by many climate scientists through rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and temperature rises that will challenge society through compromised food production & water availability. International policy aims to lower the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are thought to be responsible for climate change (see figure 1; IPCC, 2014).