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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Significant environmental damage results from livestock agriculture, the fishing industry, etc. often driving many other species into extinction.
The extinction of the passenger pigeon was caused by the American westward expansion in the second half of the 19th century. As passenger pigeons became a popular food item, the numbers of this species rapidly diminished. Millions were slaughtered each year and shipped by railway cars to be sold in city markets. Another bird to become extinct because of its use as food was the heath hen, which became extinct about 1932.
The pacific sardine lives along the coasts of North America from Alaska to southern California. Sardines, once a major part of the California fishing industry, are now considered to be "commercially extinct."
Another species classified as "commercially extinct" is the New England haddock. Ecologists have also been concerned about the significant reduction in finfish, the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Lake Erie cisco, and blackfins that inhabit Lakes Huron and Michigan.
More than 200,000 porpoises are killed every year by fishermen seeking tuna in the Pacific. Sea turtles are similarly killed in Caribbean shrimp operations.
Some animals are killed because, as natural carnivores, they compete with the human predator for the right to kill other animals for food, including wild game and domesticated species raised by livestock ranchers. Alaskan hunters are eager to reduce the wolf population in their state because this animal is a predator of moose.
Cougars, coyotes and wolves are considered a menace to the cattle and sheep industries, and livestock ranchers have engaged in a large-scale campaign to exterminate them. Two species of wolves are now endangered, and very few wolves can be found in the United States except in Alaska and northeastern Minnesota.
The relatively small number of eagles in the U.S. is largely due to the destruction of this species by livestock ranchers, particularly those in the sheep business.
Herbivorous animals that inhabit rangeland areas are also killed by the livestock industry because they compete with cattle arid sheep for food. Large numbers of kangaroos are being exterminated in Australia, while in the United States livestock ranchers seek to destroy wild horses, wild burros, deer, elk, antelope and prairie dogs.
An ever-increasing amount of beef eaten in the United States is imported from Central and South America. To provide pasture for cattle, these countries have been clearing their priceless tropical rainforests.
In 1960, when the U. S. first began to import beef, Central America was blessed with 130,000 square miles of rainforest. But now, less than 80,000 square miles remain. At this rate, the entire tropical rainforests of Central America will be gone in another forty years.
These tropical rainforests are among the world's most precious natural resources. Amounting to only 30 percent of the world's forests, the rainforests contain 80 percent of the earth's land vegetation, and account for a substantial percentage of the earth's oxygen supplies.
These forests are the oldest ecosystems on earth and have developed extreme ecological richness. Half of all species on earth live in the moist tropical rainforests. But these jewels of nature are being rapidly destroyed to provide land on which cattle can be grazed for the American fast-food market.
The current rate of species extinction is 1,000 species a year, and most of that is due to the destruction of rainforests and related habitats in the tropics.
they are saying that those who don't eat meat have to over compensate for protein by eating more eggs and dairy than they otherwise would. thus eating chicken is more effecient in terms of greenhouse gas production than eating more eggs and dairy.
well, I feel a lot better after reading this. living in nyc I rarely drive anywhere. I guess I will try to cut down on red meat, which I should do anyway. but sounds like what we thought was the problem really is: the combustion engine and other ways of burning fossil fuels.
Does PETA really care about global warming? they are really just conceened about animals, not humans.
actually, it was me who noted the Hummer.
And the truck -- they traded the Hummer in for a truck!
Still laughing. Will read article soon. Must stop laughing.
Mankind's use of power is equal to about .01% of the solar power falling on the earth. (That is 1 part in 10,000.) So we are fundamentally just a small perturbation. However, the biosphere has evolved some very delicate balances that we are now upsetting. Energy balance is easily perturbed by fluctuations in green house gas concentrations (water vapor, CO2, etc.). I think there are better ways of controlling or modifying the process than drastic population reduction.
Vegetarianism as a moral philosophy has been around for thousands of years, far longer than the present issue of global warming. Regardless of the meat industry's contribution to global warming, there still remains the underlying and more fundamental question of choosing to kill animals for food. One does not need to eat meat in order to live well, therefore, faced with the choice of taking the life of an animal, or showing mercy and letting that animal live, vegetarianism is the right thing to do.
A much better way of reducing the problems of eating Beef and it's effect on the environment is to reduce earth's population from 6 billion to one billion. With only one billion people we can regrow forests, reduce pasture needs by about 80% and sharply reduce the carbon levels we send into the atmosphere. Fewer cars and trucks, fewer energy plants, less hydrocarbon usage in creating fertilizers etc. I don't understand why PETA prefers to preserve animals instead of figuring out how to get rid of people and thus preserve us all from the horrible fate of becoming Vegans. Come on guys the earth can't support the 12 billion that will be here in in about 90 years. We have to reduce our population sooner or later. Why not take your energy and start now.
This article asks for....Common Sense, please!
While I begged the case just last week for altering one's diet to effect positive change on Global Warming, I'd be the first to tell you it's not the ONLY thing which needs to be done.
Hardly.
WHY can't human beings see that a solution to a given problem is more likely, when multiple strategies are applied?
Thus, we can drive less often, drive a fuel-efficient vehicle, and, if you don't want to go vegan, or even vegetarian, try eating LESS meat.You'll reduce energy consumption, and by consuming less meat, you'll actually possess more energy yourself--of another kind!
For more on this topic, check out my Monday, October 15th post(including quotes from Ariana Huffington), at my Blog, at:
www.lisaallender.com
Peace.
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
