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you can make a difference!
Luckily, all of us can help fix
this problem by changing
our diet. According to a 2006
study done by researchers at
the University of Chicago, an
American can reduce more
greenhouse gas emissions
by becoming vegan than by
switching to a hybrid car.
L
So bike, walk, and take public transportation. Use
compact fluorescent light bulbs and energy efficient
appliances. But, please don’t neglect the need to
eliminate animal products from your diet.
L
Visit ChooseVeg.com for tips on transitioning
to vegetarianism, hundreds of delicious vegetarian
recipes, and to request your free Vegetarian Starter Kit.
Become a member of Mercy For Animals today
and stand strong alongside our thousands of
other supporters as we defend the rights of
animals.
another
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“
The livestock sector
emerges as one of
the top two or three
most significant
contributors to
the most serious
environmental
problems, at every
scale from local to
global.
-The United Nations
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meat production
is a leading cause of
global warming
chew on these facts:
x
which causes more
global warming?
The livestock sector now occupies
30% of the land surface of the planet,
much of that land used to be forests or
rainforests that were clear-cut.
x
transportation
Animal farming is responsible for
65% of human-caused nitrous oxide
emissions, a greenhouse gas 296
times more powerful than CO2.
Synthetic Fertilizer - The majority of corn and soy
grown in the U.S. is fed to farmed animals. Fossil fuels
are used to create the synthetic fertilizers that are used
to grow the crops, and this process emits a tremendous
amount of CO2. The fertilizers themselves release the
potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.
why should we care?
Global warming could have
devastating long-term consequences.
As the National Resources Defense
Council notes, if we don’t do
something soon to halt its progress,
“Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal
areas. Heat waves will be more
frequent and more intense. Droughts
and wildfires will occur more often.
Disease-carrying mosquitoes will
expand their range. And species will
be pushed to extinction.”
x
Animal farming is responsible
for 37% of human-caused methane
emissions, a greenhouse gas 23 times
more powerful than CO2.
x
x
Think those monstrous, gasguzzling SUVs are the biggest
threat to the environment and the
main cause of global warming?
Think again. An even greater threat
to our planet is our collective
appetite for chicken wings,
burgers, and sausages.
How can our appetite for animals
cause so much environmental
damage?
According to a groundbreaking 2006 United
Nations report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow,
the tens of billions of farmed animals (and the
energy used to raise, feed, transport, slaughter
them, and refrigerate the meat) is one of the
main contributors, if not the main contributor,
to almost every major environmental problem
we see today: climate change, deforestation,
land degradation, water and air pollution, water
shortage and loss of biodiversity.
How does eating animals cause global
warming? There are a number of factors. Here
are a few:
Manure - The tens of billions of farmed animals of the
world produce massive amounts of manure, which emit
greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide, methane, and
carbon dioxide.
Many of these changes have already begun; think
Hurricane Katrina, the 2003 European heat wave that
killed 52,000 people, and Australia’s epic seven-year and
counting drought.
which prevents more
global warming?
Deforestation - Forests are being destroyed to grow
grain and soy to feed chickens, pigs and cows, or to create
grazing land for cattle. When the trees are killed, the CO2
they store is released into our environment.
Cow Burps - Ruminant animals such as cows and
sheep, emit huge quantities of methane via burping and
flatulence.
Burning Fossil Fuels - The meat industry uses fossil
fuels to heat and cool the buildings that house animals,
to produce crops to feed the animals, and to transport,
process, and refrigerate meat. Cornell ecologist David
Pimentel estimates that creating animal protein demands
about eight times as much fossil fuel as creating a
comparable amount of plant protein.
driving a prius
x
meat
In total, animal farming accounts
for 18% of global greenhouse gas
emissions, surpassing the entire
global transportation sector, which
accounts for 13.5% of total emissions.
adopting a vegetarian diet