Nature New Hampshire Wildflower Magazine | Page 28

going vegan for

the environment

by NOcera range

One of the world’s biggest challenges today is climate change. It is the largest environmental threat today. Climate change affects everything. Including more frequent and intense storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers the list goes on and on. All of these environmental factors no only directly harm animals but they also directly harm people and community’s. Many people do try to combat the effects of climate change such as using more fuel-efficient cars or energy saving lightbulbs. Although those are a good start it’s really not going to change anything.

The animal agriculture industry uses mass amounts of energy and releases 51% or more of global greenhouse gas. Including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (Fight Climate Change by going Vegan). How does animal agriculture waste so much water and polluted the world with so much greenhouse gas, you may ask? Feeding millions of animals with millions of tons of grain and gallons of water, killing them, processing the meat, transporting it and storing the meat all contribute to the waste. Not only that but forests have to be cut down in order to supply pastureland to grow crops and hold animals. 1 to 2 acres of rain forests are cleared every second and animal agriculture accounts for 91% of the deforestation in the world (Fight Climate Change by going Vegan). Forests naturally absorb greenhouse gas so without them what will clean the air?

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