Individual and Community

As they are saying… here is the real ‘inconvenient truth’….

Nov 2006:
Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns

29 November 2006 – Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today.

“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said. “Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Cattle-rearing is also a major source of land and water degradation, according to the FAO report, Livestock’s Long Shadow–Environmental Issues and Options, of which Mr. Steinfeld is the senior author.

“The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 per cent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment

United Nations: Eat Less Meat
Monday September 8, 2008

To combat global warming, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, advises, “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.” Pachauri is a vegetarian himself, and points out that greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction are associated with animal agriculture. To most animal advocates, this is old news. Even to the United Nations, this is old news.

source: http://animalrights.about.com/b/2008/09/08/united-nations-eat-less-meat.htm

Some links for reasons people are vegetarian

49 REASONS WHY I AM A VEGETARIAN
http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

Another:
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/pveg1.htm

Graphic, pointed video, features some slaughterhouse footage:

http://www.goveg.com/feat/chewonthis/