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 Eating Meat
Damages the Climate
On the whole, livestock production has a share of 18% of the CO2 equivalent in the greenhouse effect. This share is higher than all means of transportation worldwide. Livestock production releases 9% of anthropogenic CO2, 37% of anthropogenic methane as well as 65% of nitrous gases – primarily through the use of fertilizer.
Meat production releases large amounts of CO2, particularly through the burning of rainforests. In addition, animals produce energy by oxidizing carbon compounds, which leads to the release of CO2 and water. 21% of the entire CO2 emissions that can be traced to human activity thus come from the animals that we eat.
The British physicist Alan Calverd wrote in Physics World (July 2005): »In order to reduce the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is not that less oil and gas should be burned, but that humankind should change its eating habits. If all people were to become vegetarians, global warming could be controlled.«
In addition, the cattle and sheep kept worldwide are responsible for nearly a quarter of the methane gas emissions on the earth, because 115 Million Tons of Methane gas are produced annually by livestock production. A sheep produces seven kilograms of methane in a year and a cow 114 kilograms. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a 21 times higher impact than CO2. The leader of the (German) Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Ernst U. von Weizsaecker, stated: »The contribution to the greenhouse effect of cattle farming is basically as large as that of all motorized traffic, if we include clear-cutting forests for cattle and animal feed… And the transformation of savannas into deserts, the erosion in mountainous areas, the excessive water requirement of cattle, the gigantic energy requirement of factory farming are several more reasons that we severely damage the environment with each pound of beef.«
This was also determined by a commission of inquiry of the German Parliament for the protection of the earth’s atmosphere: »By reducing meat consumption to an amount also beneficial to health, 25% or more of climate relevant emissions could be avoided. The transition to a diet more strongly oriented to plants thus opens the by far largest potential for saving energy (up to 100 million tons CO2 equivalent) in the food system. Beyond that, the economic follow-up costs of diet-related illnesses (25 billion Euros annually) would be reduced considerably. When related to burdening the climate, meat components (i.e. hamburgers) produce 13 times as much CO2 equivalent as meatless components (i.e. veggie burgers).«
A climate-conscious consumer can also do something against CO2 emissions depending on what he eats. This includes, for instance, eating mainly regional and organic foods and therefore less meat, according to the Rhineland-Palatinate Consumer Central in Mainz, Germany. Having less meat on your menu can contribute to reducing the worldwide emission of CO2. Meat production is particularly energy intensive and harmful for the climate. In the production of one kilogram of beef 6.5 kilos of CO2 are released, in a kilo of vegetables only 150 grams.
(n-tv, Mar. 13, 2007)
According to the opinion of Ralf Conrad, a researcher in Marburg, Germany, the climate change could be slowed down if humankind would eat differently.»Briefly said, the motto could be: Eat no more beef, abstain from dairy products«, stated the Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology to the German Press Agency (dpa) in Berlin. Methane, the bacteria produced in the stomachs of ruminants, is one of the strongest greenhouse gases.
Turning the »methane screw« in the atmosphere could bring a positive result faster than wanting to reduce carbon dioxide emission, said Conrad. »The methane circulation in the atmosphere can be influenced within about eight years, with carbon dioxide it takes decades.« According to media reports citing the draft of the not yet released third part of the report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), humankind doesn’t even have 15 years to prevent an irreversible climate disaster.
(Mainpost.de, Feb. 22, 2007)
»According to estimates, the methane concentration in the atmosphere has increased six fold during the past 50 years,« stated Professor Winfried Drochner of the Institute for Animal Feed at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. »It contributes up to a fifth of the greenhouse effect.« ... »We also have possibilities for fighting global warming in livestock production.« Precisely calculated, as one of the largest sources of methane, cattle are responsible for approximately 4% of the climate change. Tendency increasing: Worldwide meat consumption by a new middleclass is growing in newly industrializing countries.
(Welt online, 15.03.2007)
... Our own climate balance can also contain several surprises, above all where our own style of eating is concerned. Vegetarians and women, who eat relatively little (approximately 2000 kilocalories per day) prove to be practicing protectors of the climate. They produce only between 0.65 und 0.98 tons of CO2 per year with what they eat. On the other hand, a typical meat eater produces 1.82 tons, as estimated by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment. The difference is so large that vegetarians and women could easily fly from Germany to Majorca and back and their CO2 balance would still be less than that of meat eaters.
(Spiegel online, Mar. 9, 2007)
...In the total balance, however, the consequences of the human desire for milk and meat cause the highest rates of methane emission. Each cow eliminates up to 250 liters of methane per day. Worldwide, this amounts to 300 billion liters of greenhouse gases daily. Billions of sheep and goats further raise the global methane emission to circa 150 trillion liters per year. … All in all, according to calculations by the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) cattle farming damages the climate approximately as much as all the people in India, Germany and Japan combined. If sheep, goats and pigs, poultry and the production of animal feed are included in the calculation, it amounts to a figure almost corresponding to the USA’s share in damage to the climate worldwide. It surpasses the effect on the climate caused by the CO2 emissions produced by all motorized traffic on earth!
Whether we want to continue to have our daily steak on our plates and 1.5 billion cows on this planet is a question that is decisive for the future. If the climate change can still be slowed down at all, all the primary causes must be included. (Focus 17/2007)
As Damaging as Driving Your Car 250 km:
Did you know that steak lovers are just as big climate sinners as car drivers? Researchers have calculated that the damage to the climate of merely one kilo of meat represents about 36 kilograms of carbon dioxide – and this doesn’t even include the energy used on the farm and in transportation.
(WELT online, July 18, 2007)
A Zurich researcher wants to break cattle and sheep of the habit of passing gas, because ruminants contribute to global warming.
A cow emits 300 bis 500 liters of methane gas every day. And this is one thing above all: bad for the climate.
Because people everywhere in the world want to eat more and more meat, the methane concentration in the atmosphere has increased circa 100% since 1900.
(Spiegel Online, June 29, 2007)
Instead of breaking cattle and sheep of the habit of passing gas, it should be much simpler to break people of the habit of eating meat!
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