March 31, 2014

Carnivorous humans causing climate change

I've been waiting a long time for someone to say this:
Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors currently account for the largest share of climate pollution. However, a study from Chalmers now shows that eliminating these emissions would not guarantee staying below the UN limit. Emissions from agriculture threaten to keep increasing as global meat and dairy consumption increases. If agricultural emissions are not addressed, nitrous oxide from fields and methane from livestock may double by 2070. This alone would make meeting the climate target essentially impossible.
"We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels," says Fredrik Hedenus, one of the study authors. "Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate friendly."
And here's your takeaway:
By 2050, estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while only contributing 3 percent of human calorie intake.
Stop eating meat. It's not only vicious, in that it involves the torture and murder of trillions of innocent animals, it's also going to kill us. Just look at that takeaway: it will cause half of all agricultural greenhouse emissions by 2050 yet only provides 3% of our calorie intake. To continue this is insanity.

But no one wants to hear this critical message. On physorg, where I found this article, readers rated it at 2.6 out of 5. No one wants to hear it. But it's going to kill us anyway. The choice is yours.

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