A Vegetarian Diet Reduces the Diner’s Carbon Footprint

Below is an article by James Kanter on how vegetarian diet is crucial to reducing global warming. The burning question remains – have we done enough? Yes, we have seen enough facts, but are governments throughout the world doing what is truly essentially – to promote a vegetarian/vegan diet? Please read on…

By James Kanter
Published: June 6, 2007

PARIS: A strategy to tackle global warming is a must-have for businesses this year, and the food industry is no exception. Can it be a surprise that some claims are hard to judge and others, well, a bit too rich to swallow?

Al Gore & PETA

Recently, a friend introduced me to an entry in PETA’s blog, on PETA’s open letter to Al Gore, which appeals to him to speak up on and live up to vegetarianism as another inconvenient truth. The letter stated how animals raised for food industries generate more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks combined and that (according to a recent University of Chicago study), switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Prius.

I’m kind of glad that PETA sent the letter, as with PETA’s style, they will follow-up to this issue to the very end. I’m also touched by Al Gore’s passion for raising concerns for global warming. I feel the urge to really go out there and help fight global warming, but rather true to the title of Gore’s documentary (An Inconvenient Truth), the issue about animal raised for food industry might be a little inconvenient for Al Gore and many meat-eating environmentalists?

I truly feel that even if we are able to change every single car in this entire planet to an eco-friendly ones, we might still not able to reduce carbon dioxide emission to the standards we want and need. Simply because the amount of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide produced by the humongous meat and diary industries are just too alarmingly high. Veganism should be considered as one of the major solutions to free the world of suffocating gases.

If you have another moment, please go to Meat and the Environment or further information. Below is an extract –

“Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don’t have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second! Give up animal products, and you’ll be responsible for none of it.”

Poison Ivy, Poisoned Earth

It’s interesting to note that carbon dioxide actually boost Posion Ivy’s growth, size and toxicity. Did a little research and found out that while trees and woody plants grow 31% faster in the CO2-rich areas, Poison Ivy grows 149% faster. What’s more, forests become at risk because Posion Ivy’s vines outgrow and smother trees. While 80% of the world population is allergic to this plant and no specific cure is available, should we not pull up our socks now and do something about the amount of CO2 we are producing before things get out of hand?

Meat-eating Is Harzardous To The Earth

Not many people know that meat eating contributes to environmental problems.

Issues include:

Acres of forests are deforested to make way for grazing and agricultural farms for animals.

One-third of the world’s agricultural land (two-thirds of United States’) is used to feed livestock instead of hungry people.

Overgrazing leads to serious soil degeneration resulting in expanding wastelands.

Does Being Green Matters?

At times, I wonder whether green-living really matters, as most around me don’t seem to bother at all. The idea of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” once so noble fell really short. Are we really taking life for granted? Are we really taking this planet for granted? I guess the answer is yes.

The irony is few see the irony of it, missing the reality of interconnection. I vaguely remember a poster I once read at an exhibition, saying we have no idea the SUV we use to drive our asthmatic kids to hospitals is the very reason why kids nowadays are so vulverable to pollution and such. We don’t see how everything we do can link back to us in millions of other intricate ways. If we do see that, we won’t be weeping and thumping our chests, asking why terrible things happen.

Being green matters to us and GreenTheme takes green living seriously. We strive to avoid or minimise lifestyles that harm the Earth and its living beings. Before we can convince the big corporations that short-term benefits driven by greed is doing more harm than good to us, we ourselves should practise what matters, regardless how tiny an (in)action might be.

Thus the beginning of this blog.