Me acabo de enterar que los que nos consideramos "ambientalistas" deberíamos estar más preocupados por lo que comemos que por la cantidad de gases químicos que emiten los coches ¿lo sabían? Over the last decade or more there has been increased awareness of the human impact on the environment, and many people proudly call themselves Environmentalists. These environmentalists are often willing to change their habits in many domains; they choose recycled packaging, they reduce their consumption of heat or air conditioning, they reduce their use of energy in general, and they especially dislike any forms of emissions from industry or from individuals. For example, Canada recently tightened emission standards on shipping to help reduce pollution by up to 11% (cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/05/08/pol-canada-shipping-emission-standards.html) and we consistently hear about attempts to increase the gas economy of the cars we drive. Despite all of this, most environmentalists continue to eat meat, thereby supporting the factory farming industry. Because factory farms confine so many animals in such a small space, the excrement from those animals cannot be naturally rehabilitated as it is in nature or on traditional farms. Instead, vast pools of animal waste accrue and these pools emit harmful chemicals into the air. The shocking fact is that these emissions are perhaps the largest threat to our air quality that exists (dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-factory-farms-and-environment). In a 2006 report from the United Nations, an organization most would consider not to be biased with respect to such issues, cattle raised in factory farms were found to produce more harmful emissions that those released by all cars in the world (un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsID=20772&CR1=warning#.Ub8somT71Lo), and the emissions from factory farms in general were argued to exceed those caused by ALL forms of transportation, including shipping! Many who argue against eating meat do so on the basis of ethical or health reasons, and those reasons certainly exist. But for those who consider themselves staunch environmentalists, maybe it is time they also turn their attention to their diet. Many people are now arguing that the single best thing anyone can do to fight global warming is the reduce or eliminate their consumption of meat, especially meat produced by factory farms. This may seem like a surprising assertion, but as assertions go there are few that are this generally agreed upon as evidenced by support from Scientific American (scientificamerican/article.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger), the New York Times (green.blogs.nytimes/2011/07/18/a-climate-hazard-medium-rare/), time magasine (science.time/2011/07/26/how-meat-and-dairy-are-hiking-your-carbon-footprint/), and detailed research (csa/discoveryguides/meat/review.pdf). Maybe we should worry less about the electricity we consume, and more about the food we consume if we really care about the environment.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 15:13:38 +0000
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