Bhubaneswar: Eminent environmentalist Maneka Gandhi today spoke at the Earth Again Conference-2025, organised by the Sambad Group in Bhubaneswar, and sounded an urgent warning against methane, describing it as the major contributor to climate change.

Gandhi said that the world’s obsession with carbon dioxide has overshadowed methane, a far more destructive greenhouse gas that is rapidly heating the planet.

“We talk endlessly about carbon dioxide, cars, factories, and chimneys. But the truth is worse. The most dangerous gas heating the planet is methane, and it comes from our plates,” Gandhi said while addressing the conference.

She said methane is 24 to 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat. While carbon dioxide levels are beginning to stabilise, methane concentrations have been rising sharply, with annual increases jumping from 0.5 parts per billion in 2000 to 10-12 parts per billion today, marking the highest levels in human history.

The Meat and Dairy Connection

Gandhi explained that the main sources of methane are animals, rice, and coal, with livestock being the largest contributor.

“A single cow emits 250 to 500 litres of methane per day. Multiply that by the 1.5 billion cattle on Earth and add billions of goats, pigs, sheep, and chickens. The result is catastrophic,” she noted.

Citing global estimates, she said that the livestock industry emits around 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. In Odisha alone, land animals grown for meat are up to 800 million livestock and poultry, while milk production stands at 72 lakh litres per day, a figure that the government plans to double.

“Sick animals emit twice as much methane. As the world gets hotter, livestock fall ill more often, and this vicious cycle keeps accelerating global warming,” Gandhi said.

Global Methane Giants: India, China, and Brazil

Maneka Gandhi pointed out that India, China, and Brazil together produce 70% of global methane. Brazil burns the Amazon for cattle ranching, China leads in pork, chicken, and rice, and India remains both the largest producer of milk and the biggest exporter of meat in the world.

“Every cyclone, drought, or unseasonal flood is not an act of God; it’s the result of human appetite. Climate change begins in your kitchen, with your rice, your coal, and your meat,” she remarked.

Call for Policy Shift and Lifestyle Change

Gandhi urged governments to stop subsidising meat and dairy and instead promote pulses, millets, vegetables, and plant-based alternatives. She emphasised that methane’s short lifespan, just four years in the atmosphere, makes it possible to halt global warming quickly if its emission sources are eliminated.

“If we stop producing methane, global warming will stop. A plant-based diet is the strongest climate policy,” Gandhi asserted.

She also called for an end to illegal cattle transport and export, adding that tree plantation efforts would fail if forests continue to be cleared for cattle ranching.

Concluding her address, Gandhi urged collective responsibility and lifestyle change to tackle climate change.

“The solution is on our plate. What we eat determines the future of the planet,” she said.