Livestocks Long Shadow.

Tar.Aldarion

Thought I might throw up this link:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

The wiki about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock%27s_Long_Shadow

It is about livestock and it's affect on the environment and I found it an interesting read.

The Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, a joint effort of the World Bank, The European Union, The US Agency for International Development, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and others, released a report in November 2006 linking animal agriculture to environmental damage. The report, Livestock's Long Shadow [121] concludes that the livestock sector (primarily cows, chickens, and pigs) emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases - responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. In comparison, the proportion of total CO2 emissions by passenger vehicles is 12% of the total CO2.[122] It produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO2) and 37% of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO2). Those numbers are confirmed in a 2007 article in the British medical journal The Lancet, which concludes that reducing consumption of animal products should be a top priority, especially in developed countries where such a measure would also entail substantial health benefits.[123]

If anybody agrees or disagrees with any part, please discuss.

biZrb

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases - responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents.

Thats insane!

Well its another advantage for being vegan, although I wonder if you bought a lot of veg/fruit that has been imported (sometimes this is really hard to avoid even for unexotic veg like potoes) would the carbon emissions from the transport of your fruit/veg to the supermarket be more or less than the equivalent amount produced in meat/dairy produce.

On the wiki page there was a bit about PETA sending Al Gore a letter encouraging him to be vegan, I'm not the biggest fan of PETAs antics but I think they have a point on that.

United States ex-Vice President Al Gore was challenged by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in a letter dated March 7, 2007 to become a vegan, and cited the Livestock's Long Shadow report as evidence that a change to a vegan diet was the single biggest change an individual could make to counter the effects of climate change.[7] In its letter, PETA noted that Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which outlines the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, failed to mention either the effects of diet or the meat industry on climate change

sweet-rasmus

lol! Finally PETA do something non insane

BurnsCarpenter

sweet-rasmus wrote: »

lol! Finally PETA do something non insane

Anybody else think we veggies/vegans seem to be a bit too quick to distance ourselves from PETA?
Is it because they get ridiculed so much that we're afraid of guilt by association?
Maybe some of the stuff they do is a bit silly, but they're on our side....

sweet-rasmus

I just don't like getting forwarded petitions origionally from PETA. I find it... a bit in your face. I am happy and proud to be vegan, but do not associate my decision to be vegan with the work of PETA.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

BurnsCarpenter wrote: »

Anybody else think we veggies/vegans seem to be a bit too quick to distance ourselves from PETA?
Is it because they get ridiculed so much that we're afraid of guilt by association?
Maybe some of the stuff they do is a bit silly, but they're on our side....

Na, I've looked at the literature, they're crazy people (crazy humans I should say, don't want to sound specieist)