Can giving up meat save the planet?

Giving Up Cows

There are a plethora of ways in which individuals and businesses can help to reverse the effects of climate change.

People can use energy efficient light bulbs, buy fuel efficient cars and get into the habit of switching electrical appliances off at the mains when they have finished using them.

Businesses can invest in getting their energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar, and businesses involved in traditional fuels such as oil and gas can switch focus to the alternative sector.

Many people seem willing to invest their time and money in helping fight climate change, but will people be prepared to give up eating meat in order to save the planet?

Lord Stern, whose 2006 report set out the consequences and costs of various levels of global warming has now called for humans to stop eating meat. He claims that if the full extent of the meat industry's effects became common knowledge, eating meat could become as socially unacceptable as drink driving, reports the Telegraph.

Methane 23 times more potent than CO2

Why? Because our farm animals expel methane, which is 23 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, making meat-production account for 18 percent of all carbon emissions. Environmentalists have put pressure on the meat production industry in recent years, because the huge number of animals, such as cattle and pigs, reared for human consumption are so harmful to the environment.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern said: "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better."

He argues that in the future, as future generations become more and more conscious of their own carbon footprint, people will want to know the carbon content of their food.

Cut GHGs by 80 percent

New climate change targets to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 will require farms to reduce methane produced by cows, cut use of fossil fuels and use less polluting fertilisers.

However, it is far more likely that technology will continue to advance and develop in a way that allows for emissions to be cut without such behavioural changes as cutting out meat and dairy from our diet. As Madsen Pirie writes in the Telegraph, "there will be emission-free transport, cleanly-produced energy, and minimal-impact production."

People will continue to live how they wish, as clean technologies will prevail in the effort to meet emissions targets, which is good news for the renewable energy industry...and cows.

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