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Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan  Global warming is primarily caused by deforestation. Not fossil fuels. - In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?
And deforestation is primarily caused by the demand for meat. |
The only problem with your reasoning is that trees are a renewable resource when re-forestation is utilized, and fossil fuels are not. As long as trees are replanted, the net carbon balance is unchanged. Even if we all become vegetarians, growing populations are going to demand more food. Instead of growing crops to feed the animals, you are going to grow crops to feed yourself. You are still going to have deforestation because it is cheaper to grown produce in poor countries and the demand for lumber is going to remain high because of increased population. Contrary to popular belief, livestock is an efficient way to harvest solar energy when managed correctly. Cattle can be used on marginal land where crops cannot be grown well to turn solar energy in the form of grasses into a form we humans can digest (meat). For more on this read
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen. The problem is that in the present day, most cattle are fed corn or other calorie intense grains in order to produce meat. This is much less efficient than using marginal land grasses and requires fertile soils to produce the grains. Becoming vegetarian is not going to stop deforestation or global warming. Also, if you want to come up with "facts" about how much deforestation causes global warming, I suggest you use reputable sites that are not biased. Instead of vegetarian websites and Yahoo answers, try to find the same facts from a website created by the people who actually do the research. If you have an argument on why becoming a vegetarian will stop deforestation, I would like to see it. How will it decrease the world's need for food and land to produce that food on?