The Effects Of Livestock On Global Warming

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Effects of livestock on Global Warming
Forests are ripped up, summers and winters are warmer, ice caps melt making sea levels rise, and many animals have gone further north to live. All of these occurrences attribute to global warming. There are plenty of factors causing global warming, livestock being one of them. People don’t usually consider that livestock could be an element of global warming. To sustain livestock, you need land, water and food, with food comes excretion; by reducing the amount of meat consumed, people should be able to reduce the livestock’s carbon footprint.
Livestock pastures vary depending on the breed as does the amount of feed and water. Land is greatly affected by the meat industry. The percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce meat is 56%. In Mexico 37 million acres of forest have been destroyed since 1987 to provide additional grazing land for cattle. The cattle industry is a driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests. Until 1994, in the Amazon the total deforested area was about 450, 000 square Km. The current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforest amounts to one thousand per year. (Gardella) All those trees ripped up and other animals homeless, for livestock and crop use. With a large percentage of the crops used to feed the livestock. The trees being cut down could be our saviors. As we all learned trees and plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and all the livestock sustainability causes excess of carbon dioxide. The equation doesn’t make sense to me kill what gets rid of the harmful gas, but breed more of what makes it. Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also includin...

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...digenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed ... Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.” (Dicaprio) This amazing speech was given at the Oscars of all places by Leonardo DiCaprio. He also is a producer for “Cowspiracy”, which is a documentary over the very content I am writing. This is an actual problem that is constantly covered up by those who have other people’s hands in their pockets. No one wants to raise their voice and go against big companies, even if those companies are one of the reasons our environment is crumbling. We need to take a stand one by one and decide if our children’s future is worth a change in our diet.

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