Shradha Merchant writes:

Global Warming Culprits – Cars or Cattle?

Once a week, if all of us skipped one meal of chicken and substituted it with veggies, what difference might it make to global warming?
Tons …do you know we would all be able to save so much carbon dioxide! Just like taking half a million autos off the roads!

And what difference might such a switch to a veggie meal make to us – almost nothing. 1 meal, once / week, just one. How difficult is that?
I didn’t even know that my non-vegetarian diet was aggravating global warming by adding 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide! And I used to frown at poor smokers because they were polluting the environment. Look at me, if I become a vegetarian, I’d save 1. 5 tons of CO2!

Studies have shown that if Americans consume just one less hamburger every week, they will already start making a difference to global warming.

I recently read a report from the UN FAO (United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization) in which they stated that more greenhouse gases were emitted by cattle than by cars. Cattle, reared for meat, don’t just have a slightly larger carbon footprint, they produce a whopping 18% more CO2 than cars (FYI, all of us humans produce only 3% of this gas combined)

So when you eat meat, you encourage people to rear these cattle. The net result on global warming? Cattle produce 18% more greenhouse gases than cars, including methane that is more dangerous than carbon dioxide.

Further, land is degraded because forests need to be felled in order to make space for such cattle farms and provide fodder for them. The trees help produce oxygen and combat global warming.

Added to this vital water resources are reduced since the cattle need it for drinking and cleaning purposes.

Cattle consume much needed non-renewable resources which are used for the maintenance, upkeep, transport, selling, buying, storing, cooking, etc

As it turns out, a vegetarian diet is not only healthier for you and me, but it is also more energy efficient. In independent studies, 5 types of diets were compared and the veggie one was the least harmful for global warming.

So the question that is in everyone’s mind is – can I really make that much of a difference to global warming just by changing my diet?

Check out this out –

Your carbon footprint will be much smaller. Just the same way in which you produce lesser global warming when you drive a sedan and not an SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle)

The most dangerous greenhouse gas is methane (more than carbon dioxide). The #1 producer of methane all over the world are animals, specifically those reared for producing red meat.

If you don’t stop eating meat, you will help double meat production and consumption in just another 40 odd years. Which means you are specifically contributing towards global warming with every bite of meat you take?

And the final word is, isn’t it much easier for you and me to just stop eating meat– than to get cars off the roads, mobilize governments, form committees, penalise corporates, keep global warming watchdogs, organise international eco-summits and so on?

So from today, for the environment, to stop global warming, just stop eating meat!

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