UN Urges: Eat Less Meat to Fight Warming

Meat-eaters who want to help fight global warming can do so by going vegetarian at least one day a week, a top UN official tells the Guardian. The meat industry accounts for an estimated one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, released during feed production and as methane by flatulent livestock. Meat consumption has gone up fivefold since 1950, and is predicted to double by 2050.

Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, making cow emissions more dangerous than car pollution. “The methane that cattle and their manure produce has a global warming effect equal to that of 33 million automobiles,” reports one environmentalist group. Feeding cattle is also less nutritionally efficient than using the crops they consume to feed people instead, and contributes to soil erosion, water pollution and deforestation. (More global warming stories.)