I love my bacon, but stuff like this makes my inner slave to collective action think twice about carnivorous desires:
the production of meat is currently contributing between 4.6 and 7.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases each year to the atmosphere, which represents between 15% and 24% of total current greenhouse gas production.
…if current consumption patterns continue, the amount of total meat consumed in the year 2030 will be 72% higher than the amount consumed in 2000, lead mostly by large increases in chicken and pig consumption. Second, the production of this meat in 2030, under CAFO [Confined Animal Feeding Operations] systems, will produce almost 1.9 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases. Finally, while there are some solutions to limit this effect, they will be very difficult to implement.
That’s Nathan Fiala, a UCI econ grad student, writing in Ecological Economics. He forecasts demand for meat and greenhouse gas emissions under various technological scenarios. The news is not good.
Nathan, incidentally, has a new development blog.
4 Responses
Absolutely… if you don't have the fortitude to go "all the way" immediately – eliminate meat gradually. Lots of my friends have taken the "day-a-month" approach. Within 7 months most have eliminated all animal products and are much healthier than before. Of course it's better for the planet and certainly better for the animals. For health & heart… Go Vegan
http://www.goveg.com
Good Luck! You're making a wise decision :)
Bacon is a vegetable.
Vegetarianism is not the only option: changes can be made by simply reducing meat consumption. If you really can’t bear the thought of giving up all meat, why not consider giving up all meat but, say, bacon? (Or one chicken dinner a week, or a hamburger every Tuesday, etc.) If you drastically reduce your meat-eating yet keep a little incentive in there, it might make you happier and more likely to keep it up. En masse, this type of diet is more feasible than vegetarianism, and, for the environmentalists, it’s closer to the goal. On the other hand, most vegetarians (myself included) started by slowly cutting out beef, then pork, then poultry, etc.; I used to love meat, but I’ve now been very happily vegan for five years, so I know it can be done. Take steps, and you’ll find it much easier than you think.
For a basis of comparison: how much greenhouse gases are produced from agricultural production? How much might it increase if we all became vegetarian?