Now in French
tu es
belle
Can one person slow global warming? Actually, YES!
Which is responsible for more global warming: your BMW or your Big
Mac? Believe it or not, it's the burger. The international meat
industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas
emissions—even more than transportation—according to a report last
year from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Much of that comes from the nitrous oxide in manure and the methane
that is, as the New York Times delicately put it, "the natural
result of bovine digestion." Methane has a warming effect that is
23 times as great as that of carbon, while nitrous oxide is 296
times as great.
Dairies are the No. 1 source of smog-producing pollution!
There are 1.5 billion cattle and buffalo on the planet, along with
1.7 billion sheep and goats. Their populations are rising fast,
especially in the developing world. Global meat production is
expected to double between 2001 and 2050. Given the amount of
energy consumed raising, shipping and selling livestock, a
16-oz.T-bone is like a Hummer on a plate.
If you switch to vegetarianism, you can shrink your carbon
footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to
research by the University of Chicago. Trading a standard car for a
hybrid cuts only about one ton—and isn't as tasty.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074_1603171,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1602354,00.html
Humans are similar with herbivores.
In one of my daily arguing with a
carnivorous, he told me: "i drive a
hotrod that gets shitty mielage, contributes to global warming and
i eat rare steak... and i bang anyone i want.... notice a trend
going on here? humans are carniverous, get with the rest of the
pack"
Here is my reply:
Although some historians and anthropologists say that man is
historically omnivorous, our anatomical equipment teeth, jaws,
and digestive system favors a fleshless diet. The American
Dietetic Association notes that "most of mankind for most of human
history has lived on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets."
And much of the world still lives that way. Even on most
industrialized countries, the love affair with meat is less than a
hundred years old. It started with the refrigerator car and the
twentieth-century consumer society. But even with the twentieth
century, man's body hasn't adapted to eating meat. The prominent
Swedish scientist Karl von Linne states, "Man's structure, external
and internal, compared with that of the other animals, shows that
fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food." The
chart below compares the anatomy of man with that of carnivorous
and herbivorous animals.
When you look at the comparison between herbivores and humans, we
compare much more closely to herbivores than meat eating animals.
Humans are clearly not designed to digest and ingest meat.
Meat-eaters: have claws
Herbivores: no claws
Humans: no claws
Meat-eaters: have no skin pores and perspire through the
tongue
Herbivores: perspire through skin pores
Humans: perspire through skin pores
Meat-eaters: have sharp front teeth for tearing, with no flat molar
teeth for grinding
Herbivores: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for
grinding
Humans: no sharp front teeth, but flat rear molars for
grinding
Meat-eaters: have intestinal tract that is only 3 times their body
length so that rapidly decaying meat can pass through quickl
Herbivores: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body
length.
Humans: have intestinal tract 10-12 times their body length.
Meat-eaters: have strong hydrochloric acid in stomach to digest
meat
Herbivores: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of
a meat-eater
Humans: have stomach acid that is 20 times weaker than that of a
meat-eater
Meat-eaters: salivary glands in mouth not needed to pre-digest
grains and fruits.
Herbivores: well-developed salivary glands which are necessary to
pre-digest grains and fruits
Humans: well-developed salivary glands, which are necessary to
pre-digest, grains and fruits
Meat-eaters: have acid saliva with no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest
grains
Herbivores: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest
grains
Humans: have alkaline saliva with ptyalin to pre-digest grains