Animal Cruelty: Deforestation And Detrimental To The Environment

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The standard American diet consists of numerous products derived from animals, including but not limited to meat, cheese, eggs, and milk. These products are popular because of their taste, and as a result, the meat and dairy industries are thriving - at the expense of the planet’s well being. The condition of the planet is an extremely urgent matter, and it is undeniable that something as adjustable as a diet should not be responsible for so many aspects of environmental destruction. Animal agriculture is unquestionably detrimental to the environment in an abundance of ways, and the success of the meat and dairy industries only enable climate change, the destruction of the rainforest, the killing and waste of ocean animals, and the waste of …show more content…

Animal agriculture is accountable for 91% of the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, according to Sergio Margulis (a Senior Associated Researcher for the International Institute for Sustainability). Margulis also states in the paper, “the total area deforested in Brazilian Amazonia increased from 15.2 million hectares in 1978 to...60.3 million hectares in 2001” (Margulis). This quote affirms that as of 2001, there was 60.3 million hectares of cleared Amazon (which equals about 149 million acres), and 91% of it is directly attributable to animal agriculture. These numbers are sure to have risen in the past 15 years as well, as once an area is deforested, it is deforested permanently and therefore cannot be recovered (Margulis). The Rainforest Action Network states that an average of 137 species of plants, animals, and insects are lost to extinction every single day due to the clearing of the Earth’s tropical rainforests. On that account, the meat and dairy industries are causing the loss of not only the rainforests, some of the oldest ecosystems on Earth, but also tens of thousands of species of life forms per year. Some opponents may claim that it is hypocritical to assume that adopting a plant-based diet, which does not support animal agriculture, would help to minimize deforestation, because many people on plant-based diets consume a lot of …show more content…

National Geographic News writer John Roach points out, “...the loss of ocean biodiversity is accelerating, and 29 percent of the seafood species humans consume have already crashed. If the long-term trend continues, in 30 years there will be little or no seafood available for sustainable harvest” (Roach). As this article states, the oceans could potentially be fishless by 2048. This is due to overfishing, as well as the fact that many other marine animals of other species are accidentally killed in the process of fishing, known as bykill. For every pound of fish that are caught, an estimate of up to 5 pounds of unintended marine animals are trapped, killed unintentionally and discarded (according to the FAO). Comparatively, the Great Barrier Reef is dying, and animal agriculture is contributing to it. Climate change plays a significant role in the bleaching of the coral reefs, which, as previously mentioned, is strongly contributed to by animal product industries. However, there are numerous other aspects of animal agriculture that also affect the bleaching of the coral reefs. Overfishing, collection of marine animals for aquariums, agricultural runoff, and pollution from herbicides, pesticides, and extra chemicals used for growing animal feed running into the water are all aspects of animal agriculture that are harming coral

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