Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
To me, if you are truly committed to reducing your impact on the earth, adopting a vegetarian diet is the way to go.
I'm serious when I say this as I am interested, but..."How so?" I'm not kidding, trying to start anything, etc. I don't understand how that would make such an impact. I'm interested to know. Thanks!
I'm serious when I say this as I am interested, but..."How so?" I'm not kidding, trying to start anything, etc. I don't understand how that would make such an impact. I'm interested to know. Thanks!
Here's an excerpt from bicycleuniverse.info that pretty much answers your question:
Of course, we can't just stop eating, but we can definitely choose what we eat, and here's the kicker: meat requires much more fossil fuel to produce than vegetables and grains. How much more? About 145 times more for beef than for potatoes.1 The reason for this is simple: Cattle consume fourteen times more grain than they produce as meat. They're food factories in reverse. So it takes a lot more water, land, and of course, energy to produce that meat. The energy goes to growing all that grain, most of which is then wasted by feeding it to cattle. That's why over 80% of the grain grown in this country is eaten by livestock, not people. So in short, the more meat you eat, the more gas you waste.
David Pimentel of Cornell University calculates that it takes nearly twice as much fossil energy to produce a typical American diet than a pure vegetarian diet. This works out to about an extra 150 gallons of fossil fuels per year for a meat-eater. This means that meat-eaters are "driving" an extra eleven miles every day whether they really drive or not, when we look at how much extra fuel it takes to feed them.2 In fact, meat production is so wasteful that walking actually uses more fossil energy than driving, if the calories burned from walking come from a typical American diet, as reported in Diet for a New America: "It is actually quite astounding how much energy is wasted by the standard American diet-style. Even driving many gas-guzzling luxury cars can conserve energy over walking -- that is, when the calories you burn walking come from the standard American diet! (62) This is because the energy needed to produce the food you would burn in walking a given distance is greater than the energy needed to fuel your car to travel the same distance, assuming that the car gets 24 miles per gallon or better."3 The same is not true of bicycling vs. driving, because bicycling is more than twice as efficient as walking (calories consumed per distance traveled) -- bicycling uses less fossil energy than driving even if the cyclist were eating nothing but beef.4 But to focus on this misses the point. It's no bombshell that cycling uses less fossil energy than driving. What's important is that meat-eaters use twice as much fossil energy as pure vegetarians -- whether they're bicycling or not.
I'm serious when I say this as I am interested, but..."How so?" I'm not kidding, trying to start anything, etc. I don't understand how that would make such an impact. I'm interested to know. Thanks!
In a nutshell....raisng animals for food consumes a tremendous amount of energy and resources that could be better used to feed humans. IMO, eating a vegetarian diet is likely to be the most significant action a human can take to lighten their load on the planet. At the very least, it does reduce the amount of violence on the planet.
Personally, I am NOT going to stop eating meat. I honestly see no reason to - and am not willing to give up something I really enjoy - a BIG (at least 1 1/2 inch thick), well marbled, Porterhouse - properly grilled (a wood fire).
Oh, I forgot to mention, that eating vegetarian food is not going to appeal to everyone. If you haven't researched the subject and/or you are a creature of habit, unwilling to question your upbringing, or societal norms it is highly unlikely that you would have a compelling reason to undertake a major lifestyle change like eating vegetarian foods. It's also highly unlikely that you would even have the willingness to experiment with vegetarin foods to learn first hand how it affects you. Not that there'a anything wrong with that. It's just human nature to be the victims of our tastebuds!
Personally, I am NOT going to stop eating meat. I honestly see no reason to - and am not willing to give up something I really enjoy - a BIG (at least 1 1/2 inch thick), well marbled, Porterhouse - properly grilled (a wood fire).
Nor do I think everyone needs too, I love a good burger or steak as much as the next guy. I think though just like w/driving, we all aren't going to stop driving over night and use public transportation and using foreign oil. But it is important for everyone to look for ways to drive a little less, eliminate wasteful trips, etc. Likewise, we really don't need that much meat as humans, but I allow myself to have a burger or steak every now and then, we just don't deem it necessary to have meat every single day like a lot of Americans do. The key is moderation, not only will it be better for the environment, but it's better for our bodies when we eat less meat. Just like w/driving, if we drive a little less, not only is it better for the environment, it's better for our wallets as we spend a little less on gas.
We are doing absolutely nothing since man-made global worming is a hoax. It is very funny watching soooo many people be fooled and a bit scary that so many people can be fooled so easily.
I'm no scientist (in fact I'm awful at science), so I can't debate your argument against global warming... but I have to ask, WHY on EARTH would you "do nothing" to help the environment? You can't debate that our resources are quickly depleting, so I can't imagine anyone being hard-headed enough to do nothing.
And to answer the original question, I'm not doing anything special - just recycling, composting, using energy-efficient products, and so forth. Wish I could get a hybrid or natural gas car, but I can't until the prices drop & they offer one in a stick-shift.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can't debate that our resources are quickly depleting, so I can't imagine anyone being hard-headed enough to do nothing.
