What if the key actors in climate change are...cows, pigs, and chickens?

[Pulkit Parikh]

As per a recent finding, meat and other livestock products account for 51% of annual worldwide carbon emissions! This figure is higher than the UN FAO's 2006 report (which, still, found animal products the largest climate change culprit), but it doesn't come across as a jolt, because meat production entails - in plain terms - years of resource (e.g., food/fodder, water, land) consumption, to raise animals, for one-time output. A non-veg meal is attributed to several times higher water guzzling than the same quantity of veg food. Moreover, enormous chunks of agricultural & forest land are used up for cattle breeding.

Vegetarianism/veganism urgently needs to be approached from an environmental responsibility perspective, rather than being cast aside as a matter of culture/custom. Of course, the transition doesn't have to be tantamount to giving it all up one fine morning :). It could always be done in a gradual, phased-out manner.
 
The full text of the finding can be obtained from here. For related reading and references, check this out. 

Have a nice day.

Pulkit /* "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - M K Gandhi */

A Method to the Madness called Arranged Marriages: http://pulzinponderland.wordpress.com