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Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
The representative environmental issue is the emission of carbon dioxide that is supposed to be the cause of the global warming that everyone is talking about.
However, there is a global warming gas (GWG) which has an effect 24 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
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That GWG is methane! And the gas that makes up the belches and farts of cattle is methane. |
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About 400 to 640 million tons of methane gas are emitted each year, 25% of that total coming from livestock, who are three times more numerous than humans.
(New Zealand taxes the belches and farts of cattle.)
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Acid Rain
The representative environmental issue is the emission of carbon dioxide that is supposed to be the cause of the global warming that everyone is talking about.
However, there is a global warming gas (GWG) which has an effect 24 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
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Ammonia is given off from this excreta, and this is one cause of acid rain.
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It is also not easy to deal with all this animal waste and almost all of it is simply allowed to stay where it is dropped. You can imagine what happens when you get a good downpour.
This is connected with soil pollution and water pollution.
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Deforestation
For every minute in the last 25 years, over 32 hectares (a hectare is a square with sides of 100 m) of forest have been turned into grassland just to satisfy human appetites. |
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If you do the calculation, you find that this rate of deforestation is equal to two tatami mats (3.3m2) of forest being destroyed for every 100g of steak that is consumed.
Steak 100g = Two tatami mats of forest destruction
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Continuing this meat-eating for another 30 to 35 years will mean the end of tropical rainforests and a total collapse of the natural balance of the ecosphere. |
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Energy Problem
The oil and electricity used for the air conditioning of livestock sheds and the production of feed for meat production represents a huge consumption of energy.
Comparison with soybean production |
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40 times more fossil fuels used. |
Comparison with fruit production |
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50 times more water used. |
Comparison with grain and potato production |
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100 times more water used. |
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Food issue
World grain production is about 1700 million tons per year
If you calculate 150kg of grain for each human, then you can feed 11.3 billion people (nearly twice the current world population).
Looking at the current world situation, however...
<Current state of the world>
1.2 billion people suffering hunger, 50,000 dying of starvation each day. Of these, 30,000 are small children under 5 years of age.
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The cause of this is that 60% of grain production goes to feed livestock for human food production!
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For each kilogram of beef, cattle consume ten kilograms of grain. |
For each kilogram of pork, pigs consume seven kilograms of grain. |
For each kilogram of chicken meat, chickens consume four kilograms of grain. |
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Apparently, the cattle that produce marbled beef consume 20 kilograms of grain for one kilogram of beef!!
Americans, by the way, are responsible for the consumption of 10,000 tons of grain per person, 80% of that in the form of food products from livestock which were raised on the grain.
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For these reasons we can say that...
Eating meat = something that is done by stealing food from people in poorer countries
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