Yep, if you eat dead animals, all the recycling and composting and even switching from a Hummer to a Prius won't make up for the environmental waste you to which you are contributing. Indeed, I'd almost like to say that being a vegan, or at least vegetarian, is a strict necessary condition for being an environmentalist; else you are just paying lip service to environmentalism and giving yourself an ego-boost, and even doing harm by spreading the denial of the brute facts that all one's recycling and composting doesn't make up for a fraction of the waste one produces by eating dead animals and supporting the meat and dairy industries.
And given that vegetarianism (if you actually eat vegetables, fruits, beans, and raw nuts and seeds, and almost no processed food) is so much better for you than a meat diet, you get to maximally save the environment and at the same time be healthy and live longer and with a fraction of the chance of heart attacks or strokes or cancer too? That's a no-brainer.
-TVTom
On 8/2/07, Ginohn <ginohn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In case you don't read to the end, here's a little bon mot from the
bottom of the page:
Let's review what I've said here: By not eating beef– and other farm
animals as well–you:
· save massive amounts of water – 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of
water for every pound of beef you avoid,
· avoid polluting our streams and rivers better than any
other single recycling effort you do,
· avoid the destruction of topsoil,
· avoid the destruction of tropical forest,
· avoid the production of carbon dioxide. (Your average car
produces 3 kg/day of CO2. To clear rainforest to produce beef for one
hamburger produces 75 kg of CO2. Eating one pound of hamburger does
the same damage as driving your car for more than three weeks);
· reduce the amount of methane gas produced. (I imagine the
next bumper sticker: stop farts, don't eat beef);
· reduce the destruction of wildlife habitat, and
· help to save endangered species.
That's a pretty good day's work, for just what you don't put in your
mouth.
On Aug 2, 2007, at 1:03 PM, Ginohn wrote:
> In this article, early on, it says essentially -*one pound* of beef
> = showers for 1/2 year- in water consumption.
> Amazing!
>
> http://www.lovesorganic.com/page.asp?page_id=4231
>
> Gina
_______________________________________________
Eco mailing list
Eco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/eco