Vegetarians probably had it right all along. Eating meat is not good for humans or animals. Even though the traditional arguments of ethics and health are valid, the most important reason to switch to a vegetarian diet might be due to the effects of factory farming on global warming.
Image via Wikipedia
In the past few years both the University of Chicago and the United Nations issued reports that eating less meat will help the curb the effects of global warming. It works similar to rationing. Meat can still be a part of a healthy diet, but consuming massive amounts of meat contributes to the problem. The size of the American population dictates that factory farms must mass produce meats to feed our voracious appetites. The United Nations estimated that more greenhouse emissions are created by raising livestock then by all of the cars, trains, boats, planes and buses in the world.
One of the biggest problems with consuming meat is that the diet clears our best natural defense against global warming. Millions of acres of forests and plants are uprooted to clear the way for fields and farms.
As emerging economies in China and India grow so has their appetite for meat, which has the potential to turn a bad situation to a dire one. Despite all of our advances as a civilization humans still do not understand the long term consequences of altering our ecosystem. Raising temperatures even a few degrees can cause massive changes to our environment. This is a change that our fragile civilization would struggle to face. Rather than attempt to resolve a disaster before it happens, preventative medicine seems to be the best cure. Eating less meat is a good first step.
