Lecturer addresses trendy 'go green' misconceptions

Teaching English and Western Humanities here at UTC, I am fortunate to have a job I love and feel is important. Not being one who tends to follow the crowd, as my students might tell you, I do enjoy following trends across our campus. I have noticed many efforts to "Go Green" in hopes of saving the Earth from the apparent destruction wrought by humanity's crushing weight. Common ways to combat environmental destruction of the planet include the well known methods of using shower savers, reusing plastic bags, trying to ride a bicycle whenever possible, or even buying a scooter and dumping the SUV. However, the change in your life that may very well be the most effective and practical way you can help our Earth is to eliminate meat from your diet, or at least vastly decrease your meat consumption. Surprising, no? Read on. Disregarding the human health and animal rights benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet for the time being, concern over our fragile Earth could be enough to convince you to make the jump if you have the proper facts. So, with no further adieu, class is in session and I now present: The Proper Facts.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is all the rage and here's something you didn't hear Al Gore say: According to a 2006 report by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the meat industry. This is startling when one considers this is more than all the cars, trucks, ships, planes, and ships in the world combined. Also, a Time magazine article reports cutting meat from your diet has been proven to be more effective in combating global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid according to researchers at Chicago University. Mr. Gore, where were these facts! Similarly, Time Magazine explains that the majority of the greenhouse gasses come from nitrous oxide in manure and methane that occurs naturally from cattle digestion. The important thing about methane is that its warming effect that is twenty three times as great as that of carbon. Nitrous oxide's warming effect, meanwhile, is 296 times as great. Even if you drive a Prius in the rain and a bike on sunny days, a big medium rare steak, in effect, is a Hummer on your plate. Not so Yum. Not to digress, but it is shocking the Hummer corporation can still find people wanting to purchase their anachronistic status symbols. This is an editorial, and you can quote me: Hummers are gross.

POLLUTION

Back to the matter at hand. Another little known fact is that raising animals for food is harming our land, water, and air. The nine billion land animals raised for U.S. food produce 130 times more excrement than the entire U.S. human population. No crap. Not to mention the aforementioned methane emissions, but no waste-treatment systems are in place for animals. So, said waste promptly enters rivers, streams, and lakes. This is toxic waste and according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), factory farm runoff pollutes American water systems "more than all other industrial sources combined." Kayakers and river enthusiasts are now duly informed.

The sad fact is that most Americans either are not aware of these pollution facts or do not care. Our government seems not to care. Ed Hopkins, Environmental Quality Director of the Sierra Club says the EPA reported a deal the meat industry made with the Bush administration that "exempts factory farms from pollution

requirements under the Clean Air Act and the Comprehensive Environmental

Response Compensation and Liability Act." Consider this short passage excerpted from the Sierra Club's statement regarding this matter:

The deal signed by the Bush administration lets the meat industry

off-the-hook for air pollution and reporting toxic releases from factory

farms. Rural families have been suffering from this pollution for years, and

now they will have to wait at least until 2011 for relief. This is an agreement of the polluters, by the polluters, and for the polluters. Last year, leaked documents revealed that this deal was crafted behind closed doors, by industry lobbyists, while the public was left in the dark.

Lobbyists utilizing monetary persuasion techniques deep within the inner machinery of our government? Who's surprised?

Several mainstream environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, the Worldwatch Institute, and the National Audubon Society are working to educate the public on the widespread pollution and ecosystem destruction generated by factory farming and commercial fishing. In fact, the animal advocate and priest Father John Dear, says "One cannot be a meat eating environmentalist; it's a contradiction in terms." If you are concerned about pollution issues, the meat industry does deserve some of your scrutiny.

LAND AND WATER USAGE

The always outrageous and animal conscious George Carlin says, "Each year, Americans eat 38 billion hamburgers. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of red meat." Most likely, no rational human could witness the torture of a cow undergoing the normal activities of slaughterhouses, but America does love its hamburgers. American icon, right? But Carlin's surprising statement regarding water usage and cattle is correct. In fact, PETA.org claims cattle on factory farms consume more than half of all consumed fresh water in the United States. Our southerly neighbors in Georgia no doubt can tell us all about the importance of water.

In addition, more than 260 million acres of American forest have been cleared for grazing land for livestock and for the growing of grain to feed the animals. In an article published on the website of the animal rights group A.L.F., George Carlin suggests that, "The sixty million people who will starve this year could be adequately fed if Americans reduced their meat intake to just 10 percent." These are things most meat consumers do not consider, and in all seriousness it is my hope this ignorance will wane. It must because it has been projected that between 2001 and 2050 global meat production will double. The environmental impact will likewise double if we don't do something to change it. Finally, for all you rainforest conservationists who may be reading, GoVeg.com states "more than 90 percent of all Amazon rain-forest land cleared since 1970 is used for meat production." How can this not be alarming to the average American?