You Can't Be a Meat-Eating Environmentalist: Celebrate Earth Day by Going Vegan

If you plan on celebrating this Earth Day, April 22, by taking a short shower, wearing a "Save Our Oceans" T-shirt, riding a bus or a bike instead of driving a car, collecting recyclable cans, and chowing down on fried chicken or cheeseburgers-such as I used to do-you may be doing more harm than good. If you want to green the planet, start by greening your diet. All the recycling in the world can't undo the environmental damage done by animal agriculture.

A November 2006 United Nations report revealed that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said that the meat industry is "one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems."

Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide together cause the vast majority of global warming. The livestock sector is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide and the single largest source of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions. In fact, according to the U.N., "the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential of CO2. Most of this comes from manure."

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago determined that switching to a vegan (pure vegetarian) diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius. The researchers, Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, found that American meat-eaters, on average, are responsible for nearly 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide per person per year than vegans simply because of their food choices.