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Daniel Li
|
Jul 29, 2008 - 9:55 PM
|

Eat less, save the world

Dear Editor:
More and more people today are realizing the clear threat of global warming to our planet and us. From the media and environmental organizations, they also know more methods to slow down global warming.
However, there is one very important fact that most people still don’t know; we are increasing greenhouse gas emissions significantly by eating meat. As a high school student, I would like to encourage people to have less meat in their diet, especially red meat.
Livestock produce astonishingly huge amounts of greenhouse gases every year. Take cows, for example; they produce millions of tons of methane and carbon dioxide every year. According to the July 2005 issue of Physics, “The animals we eat emit 21 percent of all the CO2 that can be attributed to human activity.”
The CO2 emissions generated by the livestock sector are even more than that of the transportation sector.
In addition, livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, and the area is still expanding. Many valuable forests had to be cleared for new pastures. Around 70 per cent of former forests in the Amazon Rainforest, the lung of our planet, have been turned over to grazing.
I am not suggesting people be vegetarian. I know it is very hard to stop eating meat. I am just encouraging people to include less meat in their regular diet.
It is a very easy way to do your part to reduce global warming and prevent disasters. Besides, eating more vegetables can only make you healthier.