Small changes to your lifestyle and eating habits that will have a lasting impact on the future of our environment.
We live in a pivotal moment. Billions of animals and people around the world are affected by global warming and environmental damage. If we don’t start making small changes now, the consequences will be anything but. Millions of animals already die each year in climate change-fueled hurricanes and wildfires; it’s estimated that 50{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63} of all the world’s species could go extinct by the year 2100. The primary culprits to this widespread destruction are among the most unexpected.
Factory farming is an alarming contributor. Did you know …
… that factory farms are one of the largest sources of powerful methane emissions, which have 86 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide? Altogether, the food we eat makes up nearly 30{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63} of our total greenhouse gas footprint—more than all of the emissions from cars, buses and airplanes combined!
… that confined farm animals generate 500 million tons of manure annually? On most factory farms, chemical-laced faeces and urine are funneled into massive waste lagoons, making them a major source of water pollution and contamination that threatens approximately 119,948 miles of rivers and streams and 450,892 acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds in the U.S.
… that animal agriculture is a leading cause of deforestation? Nearly 80{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63} of the world’s agricultural land is used to raise livestock or to grow feed for livestock. More than two million hectares of tropical forest are cleared each year for animal agriculture—an area the size of the state of Massachusetts. In the U.S. alone, 10 billion animals are raised for dairy, meat and eggs each year.
Commit to reducing or replacing meat in your diet, whether by participating in Meatless Mondays eliminating meat from one meal per day. If every American ate a plant-based diet just one day a week, it would be the equivalent to cutting 500,000 cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions!
It’s up to us to protect our planet. By making small changes to your lifestyle and eating habits that will have a lasting impact on the future of our environment. By committing to help animals, you’ll help our planet too!
Original source: www.humanesociety.org