Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org 1080 baths 1kg of beefFor 100,000 litres of water (Figures from a study financed by the California Beef Council) 8100 toilet flushes clean water for2700 people(According to UNESCO) ~ OR ~ ~ OR ~ ~ OR ~
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Fossil fuel usageAll food production uses fossil fuel, releasing greenhousegasses into the atmosphere. This chart shows how manycalories of fossil fuel are required to produce 1 calorie of protein.
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
Cars or cowsChanging from a typicalsaloon car to a hybrid.
Saves 1 tonne of carbon dioxideper year.
Changing from a typical meat based diet to a vegan diet.
Saves the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
According to the United Nations Food and AgricultureOrganization report of November 2006 Livestock's Long
Shadow , the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gasemissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent more
than transport.
Worldwide, livestock accounts for 16 per cent of all global warmingemissions of methane. Methane is 20 times more effective atwarming the globe than CO2. Organic beef farming increases
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
Depleted
Overexploited
Recovering
OK
Fully exploited
World fish
stocks80% of the world's fish stocks are either at or below
sustainable levels.
"We are faced with a paradox. Health recommendationsadvise increased consumption of oily fish and fish oils withinlimits, on the grounds that intake is generally low. However ...we probably do not have a sustainable supply of long-chain
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
What is the most effective actiona typical Westerner can take to
reduce their ecological footprint?
The ultimate
green decision
Go to the web site of Earthday network (www.earthday.net) andrun your lifestyle through their ecological calculator. It will giveyou a number representing the number of planets required if
everyone lived like you.
Run through the calculator once again but this time change justone answer to be the most green choice, e.g. no car, no air
flights, all green energy, recycle everything, and see how youfoot print reduces.
But which one factor will make the biggest difference?
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
An ecological foot print is the amount of land, measure inhectares, required to sustain a given life style. If the planetwhere shared equally between the World's citizens they
would each get 1.8 hectares.
The above graph shows what particular life style choicescontribute to your ecological foot print in a standard westernlifestyle. As can be seen just eating meat exceeds ones wholeshare.
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
Adopting a vegandiet saves
Saving 25 hours fly-ing a year
Replacing car withpublic transport
saves
Replacing 4x4 withstd saloon s aves
Replacing 4x4 withhybrid saves
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
h e c t
a r e s
Difference in life stylechoices
The above chart shows that adopting a vegandiet is● more important then adopting public transport.● more important than replacing a 4x4 with a standard
saloon.● roughly compensates for 25 hours of flying.
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarianswww.t3v.veggroup.org
What is the most effect way for YOU to tackle global warming?
You could reduce you house hold energy requirements by 50%.
Maybe install £12,000 of photoelectric panels and £4,000 onsolar hot water? Replace all your appliance with low energyones and not use them a 1/3 of the time. Rebuild your house tomodern environments standards?
Reduce your car usage by 50%.
Maybe junk your car for a new hybrid (and ignore the CO2generated making the new car) and drive a lot less. Maybe waitfor the government to spend billions on new infrastructure soyou don't need your car so much? Stay at home a lot more?
Stop flying – for ever
Never fly ever again. Just 5.5 hours in the air would be 90% of
your yearly CO2 allowance.Go vegan
Yes, going vegan has the same environmental impact as theabove options and you can do it NOW and it is FREE. And youalso get the benefit of extending your life expectancy.
Bad news: You may well end up doing them all. The sooner we act
to reduce green house gas emission the few changes we will need to make.