How Will Eating Less Meat Reduce Global Warming?

Save the Cow, Save the World?

According to Dan Brook, PhD, "Eating animals simultaneously contributes to a multitude of tragedies: the animals' suffering and death; the ill-health and early death of people; the unsustainable overuse of oil, water, land, topsoil, grain, labor, and other vital resources; environmental destruction, including deforestation, species extinction, mono-cropping, and global warming; the legitimacy of force and violence; the miss-allocation of capital, skills, land, and other assets; vast inefficiencies in the economy; tremendous waste; massive inequalities in the world; the continuation of world hunger and mass starvation; the transmission and spread of dangerous diseases; and moral failure in so-called civilized societies. Vegetarianism is an antidote to all of these unnecessary tragedies."

Criticizing Al Gore's lack of practicing what he preaches, the CNN anchor amused himself while covering a story that says the best thing we can to combat global warming is stop eating meat. According to the story, cutting out red meat will do, as much good as switching from an SUV to a Prius, and it is a lot cheaper to do also. You just stop eating meat, and eat vegetables instead. Less consumption of red meat will eliminate the gas emissions of the cows and will slow the destruction of the rainforest that has been cleared for cow grazing. The list (above) that details what reduced consumption of meat, and thus the raising of livestock is shocking.