A Key to Reducing Global Warming and Resource Depletion

- by Wei

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein

For all the kids, be a vegetarian and give them a peaceful future.

The current problems of global warming and the reduction of Earth’s natural resources such as fossil fuels, fresh water and topsoil are the most difficult challenges humankind has ever faced.

in the July 2005 issue of the scientific journal Physics World, British physicist Alan Calverd proposes a simpler way to eliminate global warming—stop eating meat. In his article “A Radical Approach to Kyoto” Calverd calculated & found that 21% of CO2-producing power consumption involves just keeping farm animals alive. Remarkably, this agent of global warming is not included under the category of manmade emissions by climate scientists and politicians because they consider it a non-human phenomenon that can not be altered.

Calverd’s figure of 21% does not include indirect sources of carbon dioxide emissions, such as feed production, mechanized slaughtering, evisceration, packaging, transport and refrigeration.

Meat-eating diet is contributing/responsible for:

 water shortage - sustaining a meat-eater’s diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water daily versus 300 for vegetarians (Worldwatch Institute). Growing a pound of corn can take between 100 and 250 gallons of water…But growing the grain to produce a pound of beef can require between 2000 and 8500 gallons. (Dr. Peter H. Gleick, “Making Every Drop Count”, Feb 2001 issue of Scientific American)

 deforestization- the necessity for more grazing land means that every minute of every day, a land area equivalent to 7 football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. (A Smithsonian study).

 topsoil erosion - each pound of grain-fed steak results in 35 pounds of eroded topsoil. (Worldwatch Institute).

 pollution to waterways - Even the US EPA identifies agriculture as a major water pollutant. pesticides and nitrates used in fertilizers and manures seep into groundwater, eventually spilling out into the oceans creating so-called “dead zones” (expansive areas so toxic that neither plant nor animal life can survive). The manure created from the billions of animals killed for food has to go somewhere, and often, it ends up in rivers and streams, killing millions of fish in one fell swoop. (Merritt Frey, et al., Spills and Kills)

 pollution to the air - a full third of all biological methane emissions. 21% of CO2-producing power consumption involves just keeping farm animals alive (British physicist Alan Calverd)

 energy waste - average meat-based diet fossil fuels consumption is 401 gallons per year, versus 219 gallons for a vegetarian diet. (Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University)

 waste of food - same amount of land if used to grow plant based food could feed 10 time more people versus producing beef. in the US alone, livestock kept consume 7 times the grain eaten by the country’s human population.

 Spreading diseases endanger human health - Bird flue, mad cow disease, Hoof and Mouth disease…
According to the renowned ecologist Mathis Wackernagel, our animal-based diet is a major reason that humans are consuming the planet’s long term bio-capacity at an unsustainable rate. Thus, many scientists such as Wackernagel and Calverd have scientifically verified that meat consumption is draining Earth’s resources, but there are other unquantifiable but significant issues that need to be considered as well, such as animal welfare and the moral impact of mass animal slaughter on human consciousness. (billions of animals per year are consumed in Australia alone according to Dr. Peter Singer’s New book! Co-written with Jim Mason, The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter).

Now that scientists are uncovering large amounts of empirical data showing that meat-eating is destroys the very basis of our planetary existence, humanity has more reason than ever to abandon the meat-based diet.

By Wei (not verified) at Mon, 2007-03-19 13:07

Original story: http://globalclimatechangeaction.org/node/53#comment-662