This Video will make You Ditch Meat — For Earth’s Sake

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We all know that meat causes cancer. The World Health Organization recently ranked processed meats as “carcinogenic to humans,” putting them up there with alcohol, asbestos and cigarettes for the dangers they pose to mankind. Yet, the reality doesn’t dissuade most of us from eating animals; killing ourselves a bit quicker. Perhaps when we see that our meat addiction is destroying the planet — animal agriculture is the number one cause of environmental destruction, species extinction and oceanic dead zones —we will ditch meat to protect ourselves, countless animals, and our home the Earth, before it’s too late.

In this 4-minute clip, shared by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, we will see how our meat addiction is contributing to our increasingly hotter planet.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that at 7.1 gigatonnes CO2-eq per annum, livestock production is responsible for 14.5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.  This is more than all the emissions produced by the US, or more than the emissions produced from powering all the world’s transportation vehicles combined. According to the Worldwatch Institute, a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, it could be as much as 51%.

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Animal agriculture not only adds significantly to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, it contributes directly and indirectly to deforestation, water pollution, air pollution, global warming, desertification and erosion. Take a look at these facts:

26% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface is used for livestock grazing. One-third of the planet’s arable land is occupied by livestock feed crop cultivation. 70% of Brazil’s deforested land is used as pasture, with feed crop cultivation occupying much of the remainder. In Botswana, the livestock industry consumes 23% of all water used. More than 90% of all Amazon rainforest land cleared since 1970, is used for grazing livestock. 70% of US grain goes to feeding livestock.

It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water and up to 10 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of beef. It takes up to 3 pounds of fish meal to produce every pound of farmed salmon. In the United States alone, 56 million acres of land is used to grow feed for animals, while only 4 million acres is used to produce plants for humans to eat.

With meat consumption expected to increase by 75% and dairy by 65% by 2050, if we don’t start to shift away from meat and dairy, we will never be able to reach the climate change mitigation goals.

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“If people are not aware of the issue then it is unlikely that there will be public pressure on politicians to put the issue of emissions from the livestock sector on the negotiating table. In turn, if the issue is not on the political agenda, people are likely to remain unaware of the issue,” warned Rob Bailey, research director of energy, environment and resources at international affairs think-tank Chatham House, adding that the goal of keeping the global temperature rise below 2C would be off the table unless there was a change in consumption patterns.

A recent study led by scientists at the Oxford Martin School, has found that cutting down meat consumption to within accepted health guidelines could cut global food-related emissions by nearly a third by 2050, while widespread adoption of a vegetarian diet would bring down emissions by 63%.

Earlier we had no clue that eating meat was destroying the environment. Now that we know, can we change that?


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22 COMMENTS

  1. For the sake of everyone STOP just writing crap about meat “Everyone knows meat causes cancer” , where the hell did you get your information from? PROCESSED meats CAN cause cancer, just like the method of preparation of the food can cause cancer, PCB’s anyone?? (BBQ food).
    I have already unsubscribed from I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE because of this issue of random statements made as “facts”. Watch what you write

  2. I thought it was a great article! I had no idea of the impact meat consumption was having on our environment. It definitely has me considering going vegan. I’m already halfway there. I can’t eat dairy bc I’m lactose intolerant. I don’t think I’ll be able to eat meat without thinking of this.

    • This article is bullshit.

      The article is biased and not objective.

      Since my family raises beef cattle, I know this article is retarded and absurd.

      Ironically, I feel bad for the sheeple that are reading it and believing every lie.

      • Don’t you think your opinion is also a bit biased and objective, since your family raises beef cattle? It’s obvious you wouldn’t agree that the thing you profit from may cause illness.

      • And I assume you also “humanely kill” them, right?
        And as it is your business you would lose money if people stop buying your pruducts, uh?

        Brainwashed.

  3. But let’s be realistic – its unlikely that everyone is now going to become a vegan. It may not even be nutritional the best thing to do. I think a more realistic ideal would be to strive for a rationing of the amount of meat and dairy we consume, and to ensure that the little we do eat is produced as ethically and sustainably as possible, with as little recourse to chemicals and antibiotics etc as possible. Certainly a move away from the large scale industrialisation of farming we have now

    • I grew up a farmer and I’m a farmer today.. Clueless comsumers That’s for telling me how to do my passion from your of the road

  4. Please retract this bs article! I love this site, but this is beyond insane.

    WHO is an extremely corrupt puppet organization, follow its advice if you desire a swift and painful death.

    Still not a single study where its proven that meat causes cancer, its even higher correlation between abstaining from meat completely and cancer. Processed food like bacon has higher correlation (so avoid or eat in moderation)

    Its also proven if counted calorie for calorie that growing salad is 3 times as hazardous as “growing” bacon. Sorry for bad english 🙂

    Still love you Anon 😀

  5. The comment section is full of people questioning meat-eating-rituals.

    DOI: 10.1097/01.ju.0000169487.49018.73
    INTENSIVE LIFESTYLE CHANGES MAY AFFECT THE PROGRESSION OF PROSTATE CANCER:
    [result:]
    “These findings suggest that intensive changes in diet and lifestyle may beneficially affect the progression of early prostate cancer.” and the “intensive changes in diet and lifestyle” consisted of

    “Experimental group patients were prescribed an intensive lifestyle program that included a vegan diet supplemented with soy (1 daily serving of tofu plus 58 gm of a fortified soy protein powdered beverage), fish oil (3 gm daily), vitamin E (400 IU daily), selenium (200 mcg daily) and vitamin C (2 gm daily), moderate aerobic exercise (walking 30 minutes 6 days weekly), stress management techniques (gentle yoga based stretching, breathing, meditation, imagery and progressive relaxation for a total of 60 minutes daily) and participation in a 1-hour support group once weekly to enhance adherence to the intervention.10 The diet was predominantly fruits, vege- tables, whole grains (complex carbohydrates), legumes and soy products, low in simple carbohydrates and with approx- imately 10% of calories from fat.11 The diet is intensive but palatable and practical. In earlier studies most patients were able to adhere to this diet for at least 5 years.10 –13”

    How about this study?

    R. James Barnard , Jenny Hong Gonzalez , Maud E. Liva & Tung H. Ngo (2006) Effects of a Low-Fat, High- Fiber Diet and Exercise Program on Breast Cancer Risk Factors In Vivo and Tumor Cell Growth and Apoptosis In Vitro, Nutrition and Cancer, 55:1, 28-34, DOI: 10.1207/s15327914nc5501_4

    “The results of this study show that, when over- weight/obese, postmenopausal women adopt a very-low-fat, high-fiber diet consisting mainly of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains with limited amounts of animal protein, and do daily aerobic exercise, major reductions in BCa risk factors can be achieved in 2 wk.”

    Whereas the method was: “The present study investigated the effects of a diet and exercise intervention on known breast cancer (BCa) risk factors, including estrogen, obesity, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), in overweight/obese, postmeno- pausal women. In addition, using the subjects’ pre- and postintervention serum in vitro, serum-stimulated growth and apoptosis of three estrogen receptor–positive BCa cell lines were studied. The women where placed on a low-fat (10–15% kcal), high-fiber (30–40 g per 1,000 kcal/day) diet and attended daily exercise classes for 2 wk.”

    From these two studies alone I’d not eat meat if I were to choose a healthy diet. Limiting or eliminating meat shows positive effects on your body if you know what else you are supposed to eat. It really just comes down to knowing which compounds your body requires in order to remain in homeostasis. If your argument consist of “vegan diets lacks vitamin B-12”, you are correct. Good thing vitamin B-12 can be found in nutritional yeast.

    What goes for the environment, I suggest you look at “ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
    Priority Products and Materials” constructed by UNEP and International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management. One of the main points they make are “Animal products are important because more than half of the world’s crops are used to feed animals, not people. Land and water use, pollution with nitrogen and phosphorus, and GHG emissions from land use and fossil fuel use cause substantial environmental impacts.”

    Two perspectives why you should be limit/eliminate meat:
    -The individual perspective
    -The global perspective

    And honestly– is that not what being a human is about? Individually prospering while making sure your surrounding is prospering as well? Isn’t it a great feeling knowing you and your beloved are alive and well? Then why do we seek greed, misery and pain by destroying our own bodies and the environment by consuming bulks of dead carcasses?

  6. The solution is at the tip of the world’s tongue, every modern corporate or government corruption and environmental issue is just the nature of capitalism, and people need to realize that it must be overthrown if we want to really change anything

  7. This article is bullshit. About as truthi” as an article can be. And to think this is “Anonymous.” This is a shill website, purporting to be what it is not.

  8. ok let me put it simple for you vegans, it took like 4 milion years to pass from getting eaten, to be the ones that eat everyone, we are not stopping eating meat, we just wont, you can keep saying ridiculous things like eating meat its linked to alien invading us, I just wonder how the aliens will taste with bbq sauce. we will under no circunstance stop eating meat, if all animals die then ill start eating humans, if this means the end of the planet then im sorry about the planet, if i get cancer by eating meat then i’ll die of cancer with a smile on my face.

  9. We want more profit, more money, more wealth.
    In the end everything collapses. The end is closer.
    People wake up …… !!!!

  10. Nope, still eating it. At least the meat is killed before it is skinned, boiled, fried, or eaten. Not like vegetables. And I tell you, after I’ve made a salad, by garbage can looks just like this, but with parts of vegetables, still alive.

  11. I think there are many articles about whats bad to eat but none suggests what to eat instead. How would I replace burgers? Meatballs? Sausages? I think people should focus more about discussing alternatives to unhealthy food. And not alternative that taste bad.

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