Eating green: Vegetarianism as means of saving the planet

Eating green: Vegetarianism as means of saving the planet
By Evan Tan, Contributor
http://manilatimes.net/index.php/lifestyle/4539-eating-green

Want to save the Earth? Think twice about what you put on your plate.

The recent devastation brought by Typhoon Ondoy (international name Ketsana) has pushed the climate change issue once more to the forefront—this time, with added gravity to Filipinos than before. With effects of humanity’s ecological crimes now palpably felt, one cannot afford to be apathetic to the global warming crisis. Evidently, humanity’s survival rests on stopping unsustainable habits that burden the planet.

But while supporting mass transportation, recycling and reusing goods, and advocating renewable energy contribute to helping the Earth, people should address the greatest contributor to climate change—supplying for humanity’s diet.

Eat your Veggies

Eat your Veggies
One million cows burp about 220 tons of methane per day.
Cost: $.99/lb
Time: 20 min
Effort: 2/5
Impact: 3/5

Don`t be a chicken. Stop being a pig. And don`t have a cow. Be the first on your block to cut back on meat.

Soy saves lives
One pound of meat requires eight times as much energy to produce as one pound of veggie protein such as tofu.
Relax. This isn`t about eating kale; it`s about the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint: refusing meat.
Pop quiz: which adds more greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, motorized transportation or livestock? Surprising! It’s livestock, at 18% of total emissions. The gases coming from cows’ rears are even worse, greenhouse-warming-wise, than ol’ CO2. Enteric fermentation—the ruminant’s digestive process—produces flatulence, a.k.a. methane, while manure releases nitrous oxide. Even more emissions come from collateral effects: deforestation for pasture, fertilizers for feed crops, and energy to run meatpacking plants.
A 2006 U.N. report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” calls the livestock sector “one of the top two or three most significant contributors” to global warming. (We get only one-third of our protein from flesh, but devote nearly a third of our planet to raising it.) The good news: the report concludes that the livestock sector’s global cooling potential is equally vast if we wean ourselves off meat.