The single greatest thing you can do to lower your carbon foot print is to cut meat out of your diet!I know sounds crazy right what does what I eat have to do with my carbon foot print and climate change? The fact is that 18% of all green house gases comes from the livestock industry that's more than planes, trains, and automobiles put together. Its crazy to think that thing that is killing the planet the most we have the most control over. We don't have to wait for some manufacture to make that 100mpg car or install expensive solar panels on our roof all we have to do is stop or at the very least decrease the amount of meat we consume and we can turn back the clock on climate change.
Still confused on why eating meat is so bad for the environment? I was until found out the facts:
1. There are 20 billion cows and 16 billion chickens at all times on the planet(that's more than triple the number of humans).
2. 30% of all the real estate on the planet is for livestock.
3. Its takes 5-8 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef.
4. 1 household that eats meat creates 20 tons of manure a year.
5. 1 pound of beef causes 5 pounds of topsoil to be lost.
6. 85% of all the topsoil lost is due to the livestock industry.
7. Over 50% of all the water pollution we make is due to the livestock industry.
8. Eating 1 pound of beef emits the same amount of green house gas as driving an SUV 40 miles.
9. 7 football fields of land in rain forest are cleared every minute to make room for livestock related industries.
10. You would save almost 1.5 million gallons of water if you didn't eat meat.
11. More than a third of all the raw materials consumed on earth are used to raise livestock.
These are just a few of the reasons why our meat consumption is so bad. The Gnome could go on all day listing reasons. We have not even got into the fact that humans were not designed to eat the amount of meat that we do. People that eat meat have a 40% higher chance of getting cancer than non meat eaters. Heart disease, hypertension, and obesity all run higher in meat eaters than non meat eaters. Not to mention that fact that 60% of all chicken have Salmonella and just about all beef has E-Coli. Both can kill us if not cooked right!
Then there is the animal cruelty issue. Cows and chickens are raised on top of each other standing in their own excrement they are giving tons of drugs to make them fat and docile. Cows are killed by hitting them on the head with a air hammer gun if they don't die that way they are hung by their feet upside down and their throat is slit and they are bleed to death. Chickens are grabbed by the neck and flipped so that the neck breaks. If they don't die that way they are hung up by their feet on assembly line and a machine guts them or cuts their heads off.
Americans now spend 110 billion dollars more on fast food than we do on ALL these things put together: Education, Movies, Books, Magazines, Newspapers, DVD's, Music and that doesn't even include the money we spend on cooking meat at home!
If Americans ate 10% less meat we could end world hunger over night!
So the question is why don't most Americans know these facts and why aren't Americans eating less meat instead of eating more? Why didn't Al Gore mention this in his movie, lol? Why is it never mentioned when it comes to saving the environment or climate change? I could go on all day why, but the simple answer is Money.
My hope is that if you read this and you are a meat eater that maybe next time you will get salad instead of a burger or you may even cut out a large portion of your meat diet. And if you must know I am not a complete vegan I have struggled with cutting all the meat and dairy out of my diet its the hardest thing I think I have ever tried to do and because I have a family of meat eaters and its everywhere. But I have cut out a least 90% of the meat I consume and I am learning more about a vegan diet everyday. I hope one day soon I can call myself a true vegan. I know that some of you may call me a hypocrite for eating some meat and that's OK, but at least I'm trying are you?If you must know more about why eating meat is so bad for the Environment watch the videos below. And if you want to watch the entire Meat the Truth series go to YouTube.
GREEN GNOME OUT!
Posts
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your critique -- and I am a vegetarian. But it's not all about money -- wish it were that easy. It's also about the fact that: a) people like to eat meat; b) the majority of people want to live in denial about their food, where it comes from, how it's made, the environmental impact of what they eat. It's much easier to deny and continue to do what one does than to live with the knowledge of exactly what one's eating lifestyle is doing to the world. Unfortunately, I have no good suggestions on how to overcome this tendency toward denial. Guilt works for a minority, but not for most people. For the latter, guilt trips just push them even more deeply into denial.
ReplyDeletedsfdsfds
ReplyDeleteThis is dangerous we should find out answers for this hard problem because I didn't know any about that, I think the government must do something immediately. I've heard one solution could be to combine meat with viagra it could be the key.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am on a quest to become vegan, myself. Giving up meat and poultry was super easy, but I'm working on seafood, eggs, milk, and especially cheese. This is some more great motivation!
ReplyDelete