Being vegan

In Singapore i tried eating vegetarian once a week, but since this is Indo and considering this is probably one of the most polluted and environmentally unconscious people, it rubs on onto you. Which is me. I used to recycle all when i was back in Melbourne, but now i simply cant be bothered. Im ashame of myself.

Anyway today i was chit chatting to a friend of mine who stays in Jkt and is actually vegan cause she cares about the environment and all. Anyway this is some information on which we should eat less meat.

Meat and Climate Change
* According to the UN report “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” livestock production is the greatest contributor to global warming.
* Animal waste and feed cropland dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined.
* Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets – nearly half of the world's grains & soybeans are fed to animals.


Proportion of GHG emissions from different parts of livestock production

Livestock production emissions: 18%
Global Transportation emissions: 13.5%
18% of all greenhouse-gas emissions from human activities, including:
9% of CO2
37% of CH4(methane) - 23 times the Global Warming Potential of CO2 over 100 years, 72 times over 20 years
65% of N2O (nitrous oxide) -296 times the Global Warming Potential of CO2 over 100 years, 275 over 20 years
Source: FAO, 2006 (1)

Producing 1kg beef:

* Leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kg of CO2 .
* Releases fertilising compounds equivalent to 340 g. of sulphur dioxide and 59 g. of phosphate.
* Consumes 169 megajoules of energy .
* 1 kg of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 km, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.
* Over two-thirds of the energy goes towards producing and transporting the animals' feed.

Source: Animal Science Journal, 2007