A diet that relies heavily on meat production results in higher emissions than a typical vegetarian diet, says Lord Stern. The author of the 2006 Stern Review into the cost of climate change attacked the "enormous pressure" meat production puts on the world's resources and said people were becoming increasingly aware about "low carbon consumption". More…

Industrialized agriculture damages fresh air through greenhouse gas emissions and overuse of fossil fuels. According to Livestock's Long Shadow, an FAO report, the meat industry contributes about 18 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Furthermore, Carbon Dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas. Methane has about 21 times more GWP (GWP) than Carbon Dioxide and Nitrous Oxide has 296 times the GWP of CO2. The livestock industry is a major contributor of these gases through fossil fuel use.

Another agricultural effect is on land degradation. More than half the world's crops are used to feed animals. With 30 percent of the earth's land devoted to raising livestock, a major cutback is needed to keep up with growing population. A 2010 UN report explained that Western dietary preferences for meat would be unsustainable as the world population rose to the forecasted 9.1 billion by 2050. Demand for meat is expected to double by this date; meat consumption is steadily rising in countries such as China that once followed more sustainable, vegetable-based diets.

A person existing chiefly on animal protein requires 10 times more land to provide adequate food than someone living on vegetable sources of protein. —Wikipedia

"There are many sources of the gas around the world, some natural and some man-made, such as landfill waste disposal sites and farm animals." More…

The "poster child" for global warming is the polar bear. But many other animals are already feeling the effects of global climate change on the oceans. Find out about the changing climate's impact on the earth?s population of sea turtles, right whales, penguins, seals, lobsters, and cod. More…