Planet Earth can’t handle present eating habits
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Accumulation of Greenhouse gases emissions in the atmosphere lead to global warming which is manifested through catastrophic disasters like droughts, floods, hurricanes and rising sea levels.
Livestock products provide one-third of humanity’s protein intake, are a contributing cause of obesity and mainly responsible for global warming since it’s estimated that 18 percent of the global warming effect comes from livestock, which is more than the contribution of transportation.
Due to growing populations and incomes together with the globalization of livestock trade the production of meat is projected to be more than the double from 1999/01 to 2050. The environmental impact per unit of livestock production must be cut by half, just to avoid increasing the level of damage beyond its present level which is already over the limit.
The problem of the livestock doesn’t refer only to the CO2 emissions but also to other emission with far greater consequences. Livestock emits 37 percent of anthropogenic methane, most of it from enteric fermentation by ruminants, which has 23 more times the ability to increase global warming than CO2. It emits 65 per cent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide, mostly from manure, which has 296 more times the ability to increase global warming than CO2. Livestock is also responsible for global warming because of the deforestation made in order to obtain more pastures and feedcrops. Just in the Amazon we’ve seen 70 percent of its area deforested for the creation of pastures and feedcrops. Deforestation diminishes the amount of CO2 transformed into O2 increasing the greenhouse effect.
Besides being a major contributor for global warming, livestock is also responsible for almost two thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.
The emissions that this sector of the agriculture releases into the atmospheres aren’t the only problem that our environment faces nowadays. Livestock is also responsible for the degradation of the soil through overgrazing. It’s responsible for a big amount of fresh water pollution since it affects fresh water replenishment by the compacting the soil, reducing infiltration, degrading the banks of water courses, drying up floodplains and lowering water tables. Its contribution to deforestation also increases runoff and reduces dry season flows. With statistics pointing to 64 percent of the world’s populations facing water shortages by 2050, this is another factor that people should take into consideration before buying meat.
Food that comes from livestock is the one that most contributes to global warming but let’s not forget that like livestock fish uses the same amount of fossil-fuel energy to reach our tables. Though eating fish is more ecological than eating livestock it stills harms our environment because of the fossil fuel used to process it.
In the end the diet that produces less harm to the environment is the vegetarian one, so from now on if people want to keep living on planet Earth they better become vegetarian or reduce the intake of livestock or fish by large numbers.
May 18th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
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May 20th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Fat people are destroying the planet. Glutons!
May 20th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
THE single habit to overcome to save Planet Earth is BREEDING… especially H. Sapiens !!
all human females must have ONLY two (2) offspring.
Overpopulation dirves all the elements that contribute to global warming, etc leading to an uninhabitable Planet Earth
TWO offspring only per human female.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
“THE single habit to overcome to save Planet Earth is BREEDING”
The Pope says no to birth controll. Just look at Brasil. the rainforest is shrinking so that the Pope can have more catholics. Keep having more babies even tho you are dirt poor. Their dire poverty avnd overcrowding is gods way of thanking them for not using a condom. THE POPE WOULD NEVER GIVE US BAD ADVICE WOULD HE?
May 21st, 2008 at 2:31 am
Wow… so I guess you must follow the belief that vegetable fields spring out of parking lots and strip malls?
Nice try, you chode. I direct you to http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/US.htm where you might see that of the 2,263.96 million acres of farmland in 2002, 46% is farmland, and 42% is pastureland - pretty identical to all years past. Quit trying to make it seem like your road is the high road. On the left we have fools like you, and on the right we have religious nuts. I KNOW someone like you hates religious nuts, is that really something you want to be compared to?
May 21st, 2008 at 2:56 am
too bad there is no scientific proof that there is such a thing as global warming
May 21st, 2008 at 5:38 am
The liberal politicians got you people right where they want you, with this alarmist BS. Yeah, that’s right line Al Gore’s pockets so he can tell
you how to eat, breathe, screw, what kind of car you can drive; it is a setup for total control of
your freedoms. Mankind does not cause global warming people! Look at the facts! They want to scare you with their agenda, when the truth is this has been a record-setting cold year! There are more polar bears than their ever were before! Just please, if not for me, do yourselves a favor and look at both sides of the
coin. Global warming is a natural cycle that happens NATURALLY every so often. Humans are so
selfish that they think they could alter this. Oh, let’s stop breeding? What are you, a new-world order elitist?
May 21st, 2008 at 5:43 am
Anybody who thinks that “breeding” is the issue should set an example for the rest of us and DIE. Otherwise, STFU.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:28 pm
The primary driver of “global warming” is that bright yellow glowing thermonuclear furnace in the sky. That’s right, the sun bears the most responsibility for changing Earth’s climate. Would it shock you to know that by all measures, the planet’s average temperature has actually dropped by nearly 1 degree C? Since 1998, it has. If memory serves, that’s more than the amount Al Gore and his minions claim the temperature has risen since about 1940 or so. This winter was the coldest on record for most of the planet, with some regions seeing snow for the first time in centuries! Where’s your global warming now?
May 21st, 2008 at 10:57 pm
” KNOW someone like you hates religious nuts, is that really something you want to be compared to?”
I Am a religious nut you jerk. PRAISE ALLAH. You must be ovne of the Fat assed Gluttons eating up the earths food. Global Warming is ALLAH punishing us for Brittnety Spears and all the other women not wearing burkas. melting polar icbe is caused by internet porn. PRAISE ALLAH