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December 2, 2008 8:07:29 PM CST

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UN Urges: Eat Less Meat to Fight Warming

Posted Sep 7, 08 7:20 AM CDT in World,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – Meat-eaters who want to help fight global warming can do so by going vegetarian at least one day a week, a top UN official tells the Guardian. The meat industry accounts for an estimated one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, released during feed production and as methane by flatulent livestock. Meat consumption has gone up fivefold since 1950, and is predicted to double by 2050.

Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, making cow emissions more dangerous than car pollution. “The methane that cattle and their manure produce has a global warming effect equal to that of 33 million automobiles,” reports one environmentalist group. Feeding cattle is also less nutritionally efficient than using the crops they consume to feed people instead, and contributes to soil erosion, water pollution and deforestation.

Sources Guardian (UK), Sacramento News & Review

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The top UN climate change expert is encouraging meat-eaters to go vegetarian at least one day a week to help combat the meat industry's effect on global warming.   ((c) Wouter de Bruijn)
The top UN climate change expert is encouraging meat-eaters to go vegetarian at least one day a week to help combat the meat industry's effect on global warming.   (KRT Photos)
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People are pretty wedded to what they eat. The government should be sponsoring major mass-media campaigns to convince people to eat more fruit, vegetables and whole grains. - Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest

Give up meat for one day
[a week] initially, and decrease it from there. - Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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climate change • United Nations • global warming • agriculture • methane • vegetarianism • carbon dioxide emissions • meat and poultry


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