Less Meat, Less Heat -- Fewer Steaks May Save Planet
Date: 14-Sep-07
Country: UK
Worldwide, agricultural activity accounts for about a fifth
of total greenhouse-gas emissions and livestock production has a
particularly big impact because of the large amount of methane
emitted from belching cattle.
Tony McMichael of the Australian National University in
Canberra and John Powles of Britain's University of Cambridge,
writing in the Lancet journal, said worldwide average meat
consumption could be realistically reduced by 10 percent.
This would help in the battle against global warming and
also reduce health risks associated with excessive consumption
of red meat, they said.
Global average meat consumption is currently 100 grams per
person a day but there is a tenfold variation between
high-consuming and low-consuming populations.
