|| Satyameva Jayate ||

Saving the planet by going vegetarian…

I used to dismiss the idea of saving the planet by choosing a vegetarian diet as far-fetched until I came across this report from EarthSave, “   

Although some of the points it makes may be contentious (e.g. the aerosols argument is more complex  than appears: while some aerosols help reduce temparatures, others may have a warming effect), it nevertheless makes for fascinating reading.

It is richly annotated and deserves serious attention and wide publicity - far more than it has got in the mainstream media and press to date.  I wish someone likes Shri Pachauri makes it part of his/her agenda…Otherwise we are unlikely to see any significant move away from the current obsession with CO2.

Excerpts (emphasis mine):

“…The environmental community rightly recognizes global warming as one of the gravest threats to the planet. Global temperatures are already higher than they’ve ever been in at least the past millennium, and the increase is accelerating even faster than scientists had predicted. The expected consequences include coastal flooding, increases in extreme weather, spreading disease, and mass extinctions.

…Unfortunately, the environmental community has focused its efforts almost exclusively on abating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

This is a serious miscalculation. Data published by Dr. James Hansen and others show that CO2 emissions are not the main cause of observed atmospheric warming….

Though this may sound like the work of global warming skeptics, it isn’t: Hansen is Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies who has been called “a grandfather of the global warming theory.” He is a longtime supporter of action against global warming, cited by Al Gore and often quoted by environmental organizations…

…The focus solely on CO2 is fueled in part by misconceptions. It’s true that human activity produces vastly more CO2 than all other greenhouse gases put together. However, this does not mean it is responsible for most of the earth’s warming.

Many other greenhouse gases trap heat far more powerfully than CO2, some of them tens of thousands of times more powerfully. When taking into account various gases’ global warming potential—defined as the amount of actual warming a gas will produce over the next one hundred years—it turns out that gases other than CO2 make up most of the global warming problem

…the fact remains that sources of non-CO2 greenhouse gases are responsible for virtually all the global warming we’re seeing, and all the global warming we are going to see for the next fifty years. If we wish to curb global warming over the coming half century, we must look at strategies to address non-CO2 emissions. The strategy with the most impact is vegetarianism.

By far the most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas is methane, and the number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture.

…Methane is responsible for nearly as much global warming as all other non-CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. While atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen by about 31% since pre-industrial times, methane concentrations have more than doubled.

With methane emissions causing nearly half of the planet’s human-induced warming, methane reduction must be a priority.

…the number one source (of methane) worldwide is animal agriculture. Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year. And this source is on the rise: global meat consumption has increased fivefold in the past fifty years, and shows little sign of abating.

About 85% of this methane is produced in the digestive processes of livestock…

…The conclusion is simple: arguably the best way to reduce global warming in our lifetimes is to reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal products.

Simply by going vegetarian (or, strictly speaking, vegan), we can eliminate one of the major sources of emissions of methane, the greenhouse gas responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting the planet today…

In addition to having the advantage of immediately reducing global warming, a shift away from methane-emitting food sources is much easier than cutting carbon dioxide…”

*** 

Read the report in full: EarthSave Report.

Adjacent Post: Of “Sacred Bulls”, Divinity & Development 

Cross-posted on DesiCritics

March 14th, 2008 Posted by B Shantanu | Enviroment Related, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy) | one comment