Really great article about how eating meat is bad for the  
environment. Thanks to Clare for pointing it out to me.
You can read it at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0120-20.htm

and pasted here:

---------------------------
Vegetarian is the New Prius
by Kathy Freston


President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car  
in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching  
feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those  
cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens.

Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and  
the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector  
emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors  
to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local  
to global." It turns out that raising animals for food is a primary  
cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water  
pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.

That's right, global warming. You've probably heard the story:	
emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are changing our  
climate, and scientists warn of more extreme weather, coastal  
flooding, spreading disease, and mass extinctions. It seems that when  
you step outside and wonder what happened to winter, you might want  
to think about what you had for dinner last night. The U.N. report  
says almost a fifth of global warming emissions come from livestock  
(i.e., those chickens Hoover was talking about, plus pigs, cattle,  
and others)--that's more emissions than from all of the world's  
transportation combined.

For a decade now, the image of Leonardo DiCaprio cruising in his  
hybrid Toyota Prius has defined the gold standard for  
environmentalism. These gas-sipping vehicles became a veritable  
symbol of the consumers' power to strike a blow against global	
warming. Just think: a car that could cut your vehicle emissions in  
half - in a country responsible for 25% of the world's total  
greenhouse gas emissions. Federal fuel economy standards languished  
in Congress, and average vehicle mileage dropped to its lowest level  
in decades, but the Prius showed people that another way is possible.  
Toyota could not import the cars fast enough to meet demand.

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius  
down a peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling  
consumer purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy,  
and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as  
we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and  
other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals  
to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and  
distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of  
meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels-- 
and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide-- 
as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when  
it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global  
warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the  
vast quantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops.  
Animal agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural  
land, and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result,  
farmed animals are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning  
the world's forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used  
for pastureland, and feed crops cover much of the remainder. These  
forests serve as "sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and  
burning these forests releases all the stored carbon dioxide,  
quantities that exceed by far the fossil fuel emission of animal  
agriculture.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at  
gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide,  
enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the  
warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is  
responsible for about one-half of human-related greenhouse gas	
warming since the industrial revolution, methane and nitrous oxide  
are responsible for another one-third. These super-strong gases come  
primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes, and from their  
manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our  
carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping  
65% of our nitrous oxide.

It's a little hard to take in when thinking of a small chick hatching  
from her fragile egg. How can an animal, so seemingly insignificant  
against the vastness of the earth, give off so much greenhouse gas as  
to change the global climate? The answer is in their sheer numbers.  
The United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals  
every year, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that can barely  
conceive of a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" was  
considered a luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a  
staggering 20% of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are  
eating our planet to death.

What we're seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has  
increased five-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to  
double again in the next fifty.

It sounds like a lot of bad news, but in fact it's quite the  
opposite. It means we have a powerful new weapon to use in addressing  
the most serious environmental crisis ever to face humanity. The  
Prius was an important step forward, but how often are people in the  
market for a new car? Now that we know a greener diet is even more  
effective than a greener car, we can make a difference at every  
single meal, simply by leaving the animals off of our plates. Who  
would have thought: what's good for our health is also good for the  
health of the planet!

Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius.  
Plus, that bang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of  
carbon dioxide, which spreads its warming effect slowly over a	
century. A big chunk of the problem with farmed animals, on the other  
hand, is methane, a gas which cycles out of the atmosphere in just a  
decade. That means less meat consumption quickly translates into a  
cooler planet.

Not just a cooler planet, also a cleaner one. Animal agriculture  
accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, emits two- 
thirds of the world's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and it the world's  
largest source of water pollution--killing entire river and marine  
ecosystems, destroying coral reefs, and of course, making people  
sick. Try to imagine the prodigious volumes of manure churned out by  
modern American farms: 5 million tons a day, more than a hundred  
times that of the human population, and far more than our land can  
possibly absorb. The acres and acres of cesspools stretching over  
much of our countryside, polluting the air and contaminating our  
water, make the Exxon Valdez oil spill look minor in comparison. All  
of which we can fix surprisingly easily, just by putting down our  
chicken wings and reaching for a veggie burger.

Doing so has never been easier. Recent years have seen an explosion  
of environmentally-friendly vegetarian foods. Even chains like Ruby  
Tuesday, Johnny Rockets, and Burger King offer delicious veggie  
burgers and supermarket refrigerators are lined with heart-healthy  
creamy soymilk and tasty veggie deli slices. Vegetarian foods have  
become staples at environmental gatherings, and garnered celebrity  
advocates like Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of  
course Leonardo DiCaprio. Just as the Prius showed us that we each  
have in our hands the power to make a difference against a problem  
that endangers the future of humanity, going vegetarian gives us a  
new way to dramatically reduce our dangerous emissions that is even  
more effective, easier to do, more accessible to everyone and  
certainly goes better with french fries.

Ever-rising temperatures, melting ice caps, spreading tropical	
diseases, stronger hurricanes... So, what are you do doing for dinner  
tonight? Check out www.VegCooking.com for great ideas, free recipes,  
meal plans, and more! Check out the environmental section of  
www.GoVeg.com for a lot more information about the harmful effect of  
meat-eating on the environment.

Kathy Freston is a self-help author and personal growth and  
spirituality counselor. She is the author of Expect a Miracle: Seven  
Spiritual Steps to Finding the Right Relationship. Her CDs offering  
guided meditation have been featured in W, Self, and Mode. Kathy and  
her husband, Tom Freston, divide their time between New York and Los  
Angeles.
-- 
Robert Felty http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robfelty

"This case -- and I must be careful not to fall into
Spooner's trap here -- concerns a group of warring bankers."