YOUR BIG MAC OR YOUR BIG SUV? WHICH WILL IT BE?

P.S. YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ THIS BEFORE BREAKFAST. (YOU HAVE AT LEAST BEEN WARNED.)

As many readers know, the Author is a vegetarian. He made this change in 2001. So for more than six and one-half years, he has reduced his environmental foot print and greenhouse gas production by substantial amounts. Just be refusing to eat the decaying flesh of dead animals. The Author won’t be sweetening up the rhetoric for this post.

MORE THAN THE COW DIES FOR YOUR STEAK. OR YOUR FAT BURGER.

A United Nations Report from November 2006, “Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options” describes in stark and staggering terms the huge environmental costs of animal corpse production and processing. Check out these nuggets:

• The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: All of the planes, trains automobiles and sundry transport devices produce 13% of greenhouse gases.) The livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The largest share of this derives from land-use changes – especially deforestation – caused by expansion of pastures and arable land for feedcrops.
• Livestock are responsible for much larger shares of some gases with far higher potential to warm the atmosphere. The sector emits 37 percent of anthropogenic methane (with 23 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2) most of that from enteric (AUTHOR’S NOTE: Intestinal) fermentation by ruminants. It emits 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (with 296 times the GWP of CO2), the great majority from manure. Livestock are also responsible for almost two-thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.

DOES YOUR WATER TAST LIKE MANURE? LIKELY IT IS SUFFUSED WITH IT?

According to the EPS, as reported by Goveg.com and “Nuggets and Hummers and Fish Sticks, Oh My! Why Vegetarianism Is the Best Way to Help the Environment”, by Bruce Friedrich,:

• The EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.35 Besides the environmental problems caused by farmed animal waste, the dangerous fecal bacteria from farm sewage, including E. coli, can also cause serious illness in humans.
• A 2006 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone”—an area in which virtually all the sea animals and plants have died—is now half the size of Maryland.36 In 2006, a separate study by Princeton University found that a shift away from meat production—as well as Americans’ adoption of vegetarian diets—would dramatically reduce the amount of nitrogen in the Gulf to levels that would make the dead zone “small or non-existent.
• According to a report prepared by U.S. Senate researchers, animals raised for food in the U.S. produce 86,000 pounds of excrement per second — that’s 130 times more than the amount of excrement that the entire human population of the U.S. produces! Farmed animals’ excrement is more concentrated than human excrement, and is often contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, toxic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and other harmful substances. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the runoff from factory farms pollutes our rivers and lakes more than all other industrial sources combined.
• According to the National Audubon Society, raising animals for food requires about as much water as all other water uses combined. Environmental author John Robbins estimates that it takes about 300 gallons of water to feed a vegan for a day, , four times as much water to feed an ovo-lacto vegetarian, and about 14 times as much water to feed a meat-eater.

DITCH THE DEAD MAMMALS AND KEEP YOUR HIGH PERFORMANCE MOTORCYCLE.

The Author recognizes that he rides a recreational vehicle, a motorcycle. The Ducati 999 is almost never used for general transportation. He recognizes that this recreational choice involves the combustion of hydrocarbons. But other aspects of his life, such as his vegetarianism and his decision not to be a child-bearer, greatly reduces his carbon footprint. So he is already far ahead of most everyone else.

Want a bigger boat or a bigger truck? Ditch the dung producers and go veg!

WHAT YOU EAT IS SLOWLY KILLING YOU AND MOST EVERTHING ELSE. WE LIVE DIFFERENTLY IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL. THAT WILL NOT MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE, BUT IT IS ALL OF THE DIFFERENCE WE CAN MAKE!