Save the planet by cutting down on meat?

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In his article, Johnson (2008) satirically expresses opposition to the former UN climate chief suggestion that the whole of human race should shun meat and consider converting vegetarianism, so as to, save earth from climate change. In response to this, Johnson argues that, he is simply not converting to vegetarianism just because the former UN climate chief had asked the whole of the human race to avoid meat. UN-FAO figures propose that, meat production puts more Green House Gases (GHG’s herein after) than the general global transport network. As reported by BBC (2008) meat production cycle accounts for 18% of the GHG emissions. In contrast, transport makes up just 13% of the world’s greenhouse gas footprint. Moreover, cows turn out methane gas which is 23 times as damaging as CO2. Furthermore, livestock rearing utilizes 30% of the earth’s surface. In light of this, Johnson suggests that Dr.Pachauri is perhaps correct to be anxious about emissions of methane gas from livestock. Boris affirms that: although Dr.Pachauri’s scrutiny was accurate; his proposition to cut down on meat was ridiculous.
Additionally, Johnson (2008) argues that while shunning cow meat consumption would to a great extent reduce the general methane output; Dr.Pachauri’s recommendation is misguided as it ignores the pertinent issues at the heart of every environmental problem that currently afflicts the world. Some of these issues include: deforestation, destruction of species, the 1.3 billion people whose livelihoods are reliant on agriculture as well as the persistent human population boom. Currently, the world’s population is up to 6.72 billion and is projected to rise to 9 billion by 2050. Cows are not the problem; people eating the cows are the problem. ...

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...rtino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H. Janzen, P. Kumar, B. McCarl, S. Ogle, F. O’Mara, C. Rice, B. Scholes, O. Sirotenko (2007): Agriculture. In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)]. IPCC. [Online] p.499-532. Available from: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3-chapter8.pdf. [Accessed: 13th March 2014]
Tilman, D., Fargione, J., Wolff, B., D’Antonio, C., Dobson, A., Howarth, R., Schindler, D., Schlesinger, H. W., Simberloff, D., & Swackhamer, D.(2001) Forecasting agriculturally driven global environmental change. Science. Vol. 292 no.5515, pp281-284. Available from: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/39/1/Science292_281-284_2001.pdf?origin=publication_detail. [Accessesed: 13th March 2014].

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