Tracy Press

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the bold step of suing the Environmental Protection Agency for its delay in responding to California’s request to enact stronger controls on greenhouse-gas emissions of cars. The governor’s efforts to halt climate change are admirable: Scientists and economists warn that climate change will lead to droughts, rising sea levels, disease outbreaks, major economic problems and increasing conflicts over water and other resources.

While controlling auto emissions would be a good start, Schwarzenegger and other environmentally minded leaders should remember that there’s an even larger source of global warming emissions right under our noses. In its groundbreaking 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the United Nations concluded that the meat industry generates roughly 40 percent more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, ships and planes in the world combined. The report also found that the meat industry is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” To put it simply: Our addiction to buckets of chicken and fish sticks is destroying the planet.

The Live Earth global warming handbook says “refusing meat” is “the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.” Scientists at the University of Chicago determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid Prius. In fact, it’s 50 percent more effective (and doesn’t cost $20,000). Diehard meat addicts probably don’t want to hear it, but vegetarians in SUVs do more good for the planet than meat-eaters who cruise around in hybrids.

While many environmental groups have been slow to acknowledge this, some are starting to make the connection. Environmental Defense recently wrote that if every American substituted vegetarian foods for chicken in just one meal per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads. If every American went completely meat-free for one day per week, the group says, the effect would be the same as taking 8 million cars off the roads.

So imagine what we could do if more people went vegetarian, which is easier than ever, with great-tasting meatless meals available at most grocery stores and restaurants.  

It’s great that Schwarzenegger is tackling this issue, but perhaps an even better way to show he’s serious about it would be to go vegetarian and make the menus of state-funded food programs — like school lunches and prison meals — meat-free.

This move would require courage and leadership. But courage and leadership are the only things that will stop global warming from becoming a full-blown catastrophe.

Chris Holbein is senior projects coordinator for vegan campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

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written by TracyT , October 31, 2007

Eat more cows they are killing the environment with their gaseous emissions!

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written by TracyT , October 31, 2007

"Tastes like chicken!"

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written by Dave Hardesty , November 01, 2007

Animals versus plants as a protean food source for humans.

I wonder, as society shifts from meat to vegetable matter as a primary food source, and understanding there is a considerable change in the human gut as it digests vegetable material versus meat protean, might it just be possible that the human digestive tract might become the new source of environmental gaseous emissions?

I do however admit that a vegan diet, if properly balanced for complete nutrition, is better for a person than eating meat.

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written by Oranges and Bananas , November 01, 2007

What better than meat?

Hey cucumber head, have a cheeseburger, already!

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written by Oranges and Bananas , November 01, 2007

The pumpkins are being wasted!
Children are smashing them and eating the candy made of lard instead.

The windmills on the Altimont generate less than 1% of the electricity in CA.

The factories that process fruits and vegetables use that and several times more every day to provide your fruits and vegetables.

The Prius gets worse gas mileage then the Geo.

the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.

And the electric cars use more energy in terms of cost.

Corn costs more to manufacture than gasoline.

And the aliens are attacking again. Someone, please call Art Bell on the Coast to Coast, radio show?

Chicken and vegetables are'nt something that whack-job authors should attempt to scare you away from.

You wouldn't eat only tomatoes (every day) would you?

Instead of being such a SQUASH, just try moderation and a variety of foods!