Meat production and climate change

Meat production and climate change

 

Since 1974 and 2005 the amount of food transported by road has doubled. A 2005 Hong Kong study shows that a fast-food restaurant making 4 hamburgers emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a car for 1600 km.

The increasing amount of meat consumed in developing countries and industrialized countries lets the meat production sector boom. This boom has dramatic consequences on the environment such as deforestation, desertification, overuse of freshwater, inefficient use of energy, diverting food for use as feed.

 But the most worrisome consequence of industrial meat production, is the ever increasing role of livestock in climate change. The methane emission produced by the growing population of livestock has disastrous consequences on the earth atmosphere. Scientist consider livestock one of the main contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases. The destruction of such valuable resources increases the impact of global warming and climate change. Unknown plants and animal species are destroyed for profit. In the long run this type of behavior could lead to an economical cataclysm. Global warming has already started to impact the fishing industry and could have grave consequences on other sectors sensitive to climate change such as, the energy, construction, insurance, tourism and recreation industries.