Humanity’s Leap to the Golden Era: Washington, D.C., Climate Change Conference, Part 3 of 17

Mr. Jens Holm (Vegetarian): “We all know about driving less cars, stop flying with the airplanes, taking the train instead, and so on. But I think also we can change the climate by stop eating meat. The meat production is actually responsible for more than all the emissions together from the world’s entire transport sector. That means that meat production emits more gases than the cars, than the trucks, than the airplanes and the boats together. So, by stopping eating meat you can save the planet and you can save the climate. So, please, become a part of the solution: stop eating meat.”

Mrs. Maneka Gandhi (vegan): “Let’s take methane. It’s an easy problem to deal with. It’s produced from four sources: livestock (livestock manure), rice farming, coal mines, and landfills. The time has come for both the developed and developing world to recognize that reducing methane is the quickest way to stop global warming, while we wrestle with the problems of technology changes for reducing carbon dioxide. What makes methane so lethal? It may be less than carbon dioxide, but it is 23 times more efficient in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. And methane has a large effect for a brief period. In fact, it lasts in the air for a net lifetime of about 8.4 years, whereas carbon dioxide has a small effect for a long period. What does that mean? It means that if we stop generating methane today, we will see the effect almost immediately.” “The world’s top destroyer of the atmosphere is not the car, nor the factory – it is the meat-eating human being. There is a 400-page United Nations report, which has identified the world’s rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests, wildlife and the continuation of the Earth.”

“The cost of reducing methane is zero – simply stop eating meat. We can remove methane in one day starting with today’s dinner. If you stop eating meat today, you will stop my Ganges glacier from melting, and 23% of my people will survive, because the magnificent and holy Ganges will stop turning into a stream. And how will this impact you? My people will not become refugees and storm your gates to enter your country. So, not only will you save the world yourself, stopping eating (meat) will also stop so much poverty on the planet. It brings you better health. It eliminates most cancers.”