What really stunned me about this documentary is how hypocritical so-called environmentalist groups are. Even faced with insurmountable evidence, the leaders of these groups are manipulated by big agribusiness to stay silent on the issue and divert the public's attention. I was sickened.
Uh, wow. I think I might become vegan.
by marmot 29 Replies latest social current
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marmot
Here are a few relevant facts from the documentary:
- Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.
- Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
- Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame.
- Methane has a global warming potential 86 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame.
- Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.
- Emissions for agriculture projected to increase 80% by 2050.
- Even without fossil fuels, we will exceed our 565 gigatonnes CO2e limit by 2030, all from raising animals.
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Village Idiot
marmot:
"Village Idiot, the documentary thankfully backs up the statements with facts. Have a read:
"http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/"
Interesting, I'll need some time to trace the citations back to their primary sources.
One thing that struck me though, at the 1 minute mark on the first video on your link, Will Tuttle says that human beings and their animals presently make up 98% of the biomass. He doesn't make it clear that he's talking about animals only. When you include biomass you have to take plants and animals combined. The houses that we live in, mostly made from wood, have more biomass in them than we do.
I don't deny that water usage is exorbitant though. Especially in California where I live. 80% of all water consumed there is for agriculture with water intensive plants like alfalfa which is shipped to China for cattle feed.
Also, the first point titled "Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation." makes it clear that animal husbandry emits only one fifth of what everything else does.
What I advocate is an 80% reduction in fossil fuel usage of automobiles, electricity and other uses. Without reducing animal consumption at all that savings would account for 34.4+% of our current usage. Not as much as I'd like but it would be major progress.
I believe in permaculture (In the context of a different civilization replacing ours - a million ecovillages). As for meat, I would like to see the growing of laboratory meat in full scale production. That would take far less resources than what we're using now. We could have that within 20 years.
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Captain Obvious
Never trust a vegetarian, I always say -
breakfast of champions
If you do it right, a vegan diet is pretty damn healthy. . . . I did it myself for health reasons -- not environmental/animal rights -- but then again there are some pretty good arguments for doing it on those grounds alone.
I say give it a try.
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_Morpheus
BOC, the key phrase is "if you do it right". Vegetarian diets have positively ruined some peoples health. I will cite a few vocal opponents to the lifestyle and their reasoning, i need to pull the references, but its the "doing it right" thats so difficult. -
Village Idiot
Morpheus:
"Vegetarian diets have positively ruined some peoples health. I will cite a few vocal opponents to the lifestyle and their reasoning, i need to pull the references, but its the "doing it right" thats so difficult."
A good multi-vitamin like Twin Labs Mega 6 and B-100 complex - not the junk you get at the supermarket - should round off a good diet. Vitamin B-12 in particular has to be supplemented to a non-animal diet.
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Vidiot
I like cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and steak too much to give them up.
In fact, back when I was still in, the thought of having to become vegetarian in the New System kind of bummed me out.
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LoveUniHateExams
Good for you, Marmot. I get why people become vegan/vegetarian. I admire the way former meat-eaters discipline themselves to stop eating meat.
I would like at some stage to go veggie (no meat, but cheese, eggs - ok) for a month, just to see any possible benefits.
But I think I'll skip watching the documentary. I wouldn't want to work in a slaughterhouse, but eating meat doesn't bother my conscience.
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marmot
Oh I have no qualms about killing cute little critters for meat. I'm a hunter and fisherman and will continue to supplement my diet with wild game but the documentary is more about the environmental impact of eating animal products due to unsustainable farming practices.
Animal farming is THE leading threat to the environment due to water use, land (mis)use and greenhouse gas emissions, but what are we told to do by the so-called "environmentalists?" Buy electric cars, buy high-efficiency washers, buy compact fluorescent lightbulbs, buy solar panels.
Notice a trend? Spend, spend, spend. No one is talking about the huge impact you can have immediately by cutting animal products from your diet. Why? That would hurt the industry pocketbooks.
I was literally sick to my stomach when I found out about water use in the livestock industry. We're being told not to water our lawns and conserve water at every corner, there's real talk about water resource wars in the near future. Following every single conservation trick in the book you might save 50 gallons a month of domestic water use whereas a SINGLE quarter-pound hamburger takes 660 gallons of water to produce.
The data is out there for all to see, but none of the major environmental groups will touch the issue with a ten-foot pole.
Our biosphere is in crisis, the oceans are on the verge of collapse, but everyone's being misinformed about the major issue driving climate change, species extinction and habitat destruction.