In this day and age, global warming is steadily becoming a huge issue. The widely accepted No. 1 cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels for electric power. Hybrid cars are beginning to pop up everywhere on the streets and in ad campaigns in an attempt to switch fuel sources. Former Vice President Al Gore recently won a Nobel peace prize for his research and documentary on global warming awareness. Images of the polar ice cap melting and the polar bear species dwindling haunt my thoughts. For these reasons, I have begun looking for new ways to save energy and do my part to help, which is why I was so excited to find this little tidbit of knowledge:
According to a recent story on Salon.com, the amount of energy and resources we invest in breeding animals for food, alongside naturally toxic excretions of those animals, is significantly responsible for global-warming. However, poultry are the least polluting.
The story continues with some shocking statistics:
- A November 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report found that livestock accounts for 18 percent of global warming emissions worldwide, more than the entire transportation sector. In the U.S. alone, our livestock account for six percent of our greenhouse gases; comparable to the 19 percent from our cars, light trucks, and airplanes.
- Also according to the FAO, livestock production is a top cause of the world's many environmental problems: deforestation, acid rain, dead zones in the ocean, land degradation, water pollution, species extinction and, most threatening of all, global warming.
- Livestock emit about a third of human-caused methane production and two-thirds of human-caused nitrous oxide. Because of the specific features of their digestion, cattle, bison, sheep and goats burp out a lot of methane that traps 23 times more heat per ton than carbon dioxide. Chickens don't “burp” methane and they produce only one-tenth of the amount of methane cattle waste produces.
- Lastly, the difference between a vegan diet and one that includes cheeseburgers is less than 2 tons of greenhouse gases a year, which is about the equivalent of switching from a Camry to a Prius.
With those statistics in mind, consuming mass quantities of beef is the most harmful, followed by sheep, goats, and pork. My point, ladies and gentlemen, is not to scare you into giving up all forms of meat. As a born and raised Texan, I understand the difficulty in cutting cows out of my diet completely, but doesn't every little bit help? Perhaps, try saving that juicy steak for a special meal, and eat chicken and vegetables more often. It will slow down the process a little more, and we would all be a bit more healthy.
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