02 December, 2010

A MOST Inconvenient Truth

Meat The Truth 

Meat The Truth is an engaging, thought provoking film produced by the Party for the Animals from the Netherlands. The film picks up where An Inconvenient Truth conveniently left off, and is a must-see for anyone who cares about the future of life on this planet.


A MOST Inconvenient Truth | What Al Gore forgot to mention...
The Big Picture By now you've probably seen 'An Inconvenient Truth', and if you haven't, you are no doubt aware that the Earth is in crisis due to ever increasing greenhouse gases. But do you know the whole story?
While Al Gore focused on carbon emissions, which without question are harmful, he failed to mention that there is a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide that is polluting our environment everyday — methane. The largest producers of methane gas? Livestock.
Did you know that transport systems around the world make up 13% of global greenhouse gases? That may sound like a lot, but livestock farming and production systems make up a whopping 18%. That's right — livestock production is responsible for more greenhouse gases than every single car, bus, train, plane, tractor and scooter put together.
'Meat The Truth' shows us the startling environmental costs of raising animals for food, including how a single dairy cow produces 500-700 litres of methane a day. In one year that cow has created the same amount of greenhouse gas as a medium sized car travelling 70,000 kilometres.
Factory farming of animals also contributes to high levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Carbon sinks such as the Amazon and the Cerrado in Brazil are continuously being cleared for soya bean crops, 75% of which are exported to feed sheep, cattle, pigs and chickens in the Western world. It takes 7Kg of these crops to produce just 1Kg of meat — the livestock industry literally gobbles up this precious food.
To produce animal products, approximately ten times the amount of land is needed than to produce the same amount of vegetable product. It's not hard to see that this is an incredibly inefficient and unsustainable way to produce protein.
Whilst the Australian meat industry attempts to convince the public of its environmental credentials, the reality is that, with the Earth's population predicted to hit 9 billion by 2050, there is just no way for the unsustainable consumption of meat to continue. The answer is simple. Less meat means less animal production, which means less greenhouse gases, less water consumption, less deforestation and finally, less global warming.


Quotes from the Film 


“A vegetarian in a Hummer produces fewer greenhouse emissions than a meat eater in a Toyota Prius.”

“People don't realise that it's actually the meat on their plate that's causing global warming rather than the car that they're driving.”
“Everybody needs to know that food and agriculture contributes to climate change and has environmental impact.”

“Half of the total global wheat harvest is used as livestock feed to support out meat and dairy consumption. At the same time, people in poor countries are starving.”
US, the meat industry uses about one third of all the fossil fuels that we generate.”
“I do not believe that we can have a good situation for animals or the environment if we continue to eat as much meat as we're eating.” — Wayne Pacelle, HSUS President
“If you reduce your total [meat] consumption by half ... you cut in half the greenhouse gas emissions ... Our fork is a powerful tool.”
“I knew that what we were doing was wrong, was absolutely, totally non-sustainable.” — Howard Lyman, ex cattle rancher
“If we don't change our eating habits, we will be consuming 450 billion kilos of meat by 2050.”
“The production of 1kg of beef is just as bad for the environment as driving around in the car for three hours while you left all your lights on at home.”
“If all people in the world started eating as much meat as we do, then we'd need three planets to feed them al

No comments:

Post a Comment