Vegetarianism to tackle

global warming

GLOBAL WARMING(GW)
SERIOUS THREAT TODAY

Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is the best

diet for personal health
Only few realize today that going vegan is good for
planetary health
Choices we make and the life style we lead now will
affect the future generation living on this planet
Hence the paper focuses on
ADVOCATING VEGETARIAN (VEGAN) DIET

EXPECTED CONSEQUENCES OF
GLOBAL WARMING
Coastal flooding
Extreme weather
Spreading diseases
Mass extinctions
Green house gas in atmosphere

COASTAL FLOODING

EXTREME WEATHER

SPREADING DISEASES

MASS EXTINCTIONS

GREEN HOUSE GAS IN

ATMOSPHERE

ABATING CO2 EMISSIONS

CO2 EMISSIONS AND EARTH

WARMING
CO2 emissions constitute major cause for global
warming
CO2 is not fully responsible for most of the earths
warming
Non CO2 green house gases (methane & nitrous
oxide) are equally responsible for the next half
century thus making CO2 emissions having zero
effect on GW

Source of Green house gas

methane is 21 times powerful than CO 2
Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric
concentration of CO2 risen by about 31% but
methane concentration doubled
Human sources of CO2 amount to 3% of
natural emissions
Animal agriculture produces more than 100
million tonnes of methane every year

HUMAN SOURCE OF GHG

CONCENTRATION OF
GREENHOUSE GASES

VEGETARIANISM AND LIVE STOCK

NASA has confirmed that live stock plays a
vital role in eructation (burping) in GW
An adult cow (small source by itself) emits
80 to 110 Kgs of methane
100 million cattle and ruminants (cattle,
sheep, buffalo, goat) in the globe emit 5.5
million tonnes of methane per year in the
atmosphere

Cont..

Population of beef cattle and dairy cattle has

grown so much that methane from cows now is
big (5% from flatus and 95% via eructation)
Global meat consumption has increased fivefold
in the past 50 years, shows little sign of abating
85% of this methane is produced in digestive
processes of live stock. 15% of methane from
storing untreated farm animal waste

METHANE FROM COW IS HUGE

Cont
Most significant contributors to todays
serious environmental problems is live
stock
Ruminants have 4 stomach and digest
their food in their stomach instead of
intestine for humans. Ruminants eat
food, regurgitate it as cud.
Live stock sector accounts for 9% of co 2
generates 65% of human related nitrous
oxide which is 296 times of GWP of co 2

Why to go vegan
Going vegan is advisable to slow the
accumulation of heat trapping gas in our
atmosphere
A Chicken in every pot and car in every
garage is the present adage. With GW
reaching feverish levels, many having second
thought about all those cars in garage. We
should instead be worrying about chickens.
We are eating our planet to death. FAO
concluded that worldwide livestock farming
generates 18% of greenhouse gas emission.

Cont.
What we are seeing is just the beginning.
Meat consumption has increased fivefold
in the past 50 years and it is expected to
double in the next 50 years
Rather than trying to reduce GW by
driving more fuel efficient cars and using
energy saving light bulbs it is better to go
vegan

Cont.
For eg: producing a pound of meat
hamburger for someones lunch(size of 2
decks of card) is equal to driving3000 pound
car nearly 10 miles
25 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of wheat
whereas 2500 gallons of water required to
produce 1 lb of meat
Eat Wheat than meat
4000 animals die spurting their blood out
every minute in a slaughter house

Cont.
Cows would naturally live up to 20
years but are slaughtered after 5 7
years when their milk production
begins to fall
Large areas of land are under
monoculture to grow crops to feed
animals deserting out other species

CONTD

Shift in diet lowers GHG emissions which is

much more quicker than shift away from fossil
fuel burning technology that emits co 2
Reduction in methane have many beneficial
side effects for the environment less methane
results in less tropospheric ozone which reduces
damage to human health and agriculture
Factory farm waste lagoons are a leading
source of water pollution today across the world
.

CONT..
Reductions in this source of greenhouse gas
that can be achieved through vegetarian diet
Compared to auto and oil industries, it is very
easy to cut methane emission by following
vegan diet in every meal
800 million people in the planet suffer from
mal nutrition because majority of corn and soy
grown in the world feeds ruminants

Recommendations
Government policy should encourage
vegetarian diets.
Organizations should consider advocating
vegetarianism as a major part of their GW
campaigns
All countries across the globe can
advocate the practice of being vegan
atleast once in a week

Cont.
Numerous studies show much lower cancer rates
in countries which have largely plant-based diets
Global temperatures are already higher than
theyve ever been in at least the past
millennium, and the increase is accelerating
even faster than scientists had predicted
Garlic can be added to cow feed to reduce the
methane emission
Eat lot of fresh fruit and vegetables rather than
meat

Conclusion
Every time we eat, we either make a
peaceful
choice(go
vegan)
or
a
destructive choice(not going vegan). So it
is better to make a peaceful choice.
When we step outside and wonder what
happened to winter we should think about
what we had for dinner last night.

So, GO VEGAN- SAVE THE WORLD FOR

FUTURE GENERATION

KHORB KOON