How Veganism Helps The Environment
How veganism and environmental protection are related
Popular questions under the news related to veganism and vegans: “And what’s the environmental problem and concern for the environment?”
In general, the environment began to suffer from human addiction to meat long before the appearance of veganism as a concept.
Initially, humanity developed in unity with nature. But as progress progressed, these relationships became more strained. The first ecological crisis occurred about 40-15 thousand years BC, when man was a hunter and a collector. Due to its hunting activity, the population of some animal species has sharply decreased, which led to their complete extinction.
The second ecological crisis came 10-8 thousand years BC, when a man moved from gathering to agriculture. To create arable land and pastures, people uprooted forests.
The third ecological crisis associated with human dependence on animal food can be observed now. It is based on five reasons.
Irrational use of land
In the world there are about 5 billion hectares of agricultural areas, 68% of them are used for grazing. In these areas, the land becomes barren and dangerous: its quality is deteriorating, it is compacted, polluted by chemicals. It may take several years to restore these areas.
Of course, crops are also grown to provide people with food. But a person eats less animal: a cow needs 10-20 kg of feed per day, an average family of such a volume of food is enough for a week.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Andrew Jarvis of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia claims that a third of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are livestock.
With other experts, Jarvis calculated that the production of meat per family produces more greenhouse gases than when two cars use this family.
It is not surprising that greenhouse gases are emitted during the production of fodder, transportation of meat, and also produced at the expense of animal waste products.
The aggregate of greenhouse gases from livestock exceeds all automobile, aircraft and ship gases combined - the UN reports in its reports .
Water depletion
The raising of livestock and its maintenance is a resource-intensive process. Water is the most valuable and most sought after source. It is necessary for irrigation of grain, which will be used for food, for drinking animals, washing them, cleaning premises and other processes.
In 2001, John Robbins wrote a book, The Food Revolution , in which he provided revolutionary data. In order for 450 g of lettuce to fall on our plates, 104 liters of water must be consumed, for 450 g of beef - 23 700 liters. These figures are relevant today.
But that's not all. In addition to the depletion of water reserves, livestock also pollutes them. Nitrates and phosphates enter groundwater, run-off, rivers and seas from fattening plants.
Scientists have established a directly proportional relationship between the amount of harmful substances in fish meat and the number of cardiovascular diseases.
Toxic waste accumulation
Animal excreta are organic waste, but accumulating, they spread bacteria, nitrates, heavy metals, ammonia, cyanide, methane.
With such a composition, they poison the soil and groundwater. A strange fact, considering that manure and manure are used as fertilizer. There is no contradiction here.
According to the " Methodical recommendations on the technological design of systems for the removal and preparation for the use of manure and litter, " animal waste must first be decontaminated by biological, physical or chemical methods.
Procedures can last up to 12 months and require financial investments. In addition, these are only recommendations, which means that they are respected at the discretion of the organization.
In 2004, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 2,500 livestock units create as much garbage as 411,000 people.
Ecosystem imbalance
All of the above consequences of livestock breeding lead to environmental imbalances. Forests are reduced, soil and water are polluted, the ozone layer is thinning. As a result, wild animals die out en masse.
Back in school, biology lessons told us about the relationship of everything in nature. The disappearance of whole species cannot pass without a trace, it affects the state of the whole ecosystem. Over the past 100 years, the rate of decline in biodiversity has increased 100 times.
It is not even poaching, it occupies one of the last positions in the list of reasons. Three leaders: agriculture, livestock, mining. Thus, man violates the habitat of animals, and nature is not able to independently regulate this process.
Although the animal world belongs to renewable natural resources, it cannot recover at the speed with which a person destroys it because of its needs.
Steps towards veganism are already underway.
Marco Springman, a researcher at Oxford University, has developed computer models that can show the development of different scenarios: partial refusal of the population of the Earth from meat, universal vegetarianism, general veganism.
If by 2050 society will refrain from consuming meat, then greenhouse gas emissions from the animal industry will decrease by 60%, if from all food of animal origin - by 70%.
Paul McCartney at the Summit on Climate Change in 2015 urged everyone to abandon meat for at least one day a week. This movement is supported by many Hollywood stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo DiCaprio and others.
Recently, more and more vegan initiatives have appeared: the VegMart market of ethical products regularly takes place in Moscow, Los Angeles has the world's first vegan fashion week, and vegan brands of shoes, clothes, and cosmetics appear on the market.
Such phenomena become not just a necessity, but also a fashion trend.
To read more on popular ecology topic follow more on Recycle which was our source website for this article.