Most people care about the environment…at least enough to say they do on a study.
And most people have faith that the top environmental
agencies in the world are fighting the good fight to remedy the wrongs of humankind, certain
that they’re focusing on the core issues with the greatest impact. Well, today we’re
going to look at the top issues championed by the environmental agencies and the vast majority
of environmentalists and see why they’re wrong. So…very…wrong.
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget, the first of the
“everything wrong with” series. Way back in the day I did a video comparing the effectiveness
of all the common “go green” tips to eating a vegan diet. That video’s up there if you
want to check it out later. Unfortunately it was before I was very rigorous with citing
my sources and I haven’t had time to cobble them back together for that post. So today
is a bit of a revamp with new numbers, many even more incredible.
I’m going to move more quickly in this video than usual but citations for every fact I
state and additional information are available on the blog post for this video which linked up
there and in the video description. I will also track any errors that I or anyone else finds in this
video there as well. I will also be far more sarcastic in this video but do not mean to
say that other environmental issues have no importance. You have been warned. Let’s
get the tally of wrongness up [which you’ll see is more of an art than a science] and
start the clock after….
Issue One: Climate Change
Environmental agencies focus on fossil fuels as the big bad baddy of greenhouse gas emissions
leading to global warming, suggesting alternative energy, carpooling, hybrid cars, and biking,
but animal agriculture accounts for more CO2 per year than all transportation methods combined.
A conservative 2006 study by the United Nations Food and Agricultural organization placed animal
agriculture at 7,516 metric tons per year or 18% of annual global GHG emissions with
a far more thorough 2009 World Watch study taking into account overlooked livestock respiration,
land use, methane and other oversights of the FAO, with the ultimate outcome of at least
32,654 million tons of CO2 per year coming from animal agriculture. That’s 51% of all
global emissions compared to the 13% of all combined transportation.
And what do the environmental agencies point to: reducing fossil fuel usage.
If we completely stopped all use of gas, oil, fuel, electricity, et cetera, and never used
them ever again, we would still exceed our carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions
of 565 Gigatons by the year 2030 just with the impact of livestock alone. So not using
fossil fuels at all, which would be the wet dream of every environmental agency, we’re
still gassing out the planet with the one contributor, the main contributor, which they
refuse to even address.
In a similar vein, the focus is always almost exclusively on CO2 but methane is 25-100 times
more destructive than CO2 and has 86 times the global warming power.
If we do reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere as all the organizations are calling for, it will
take around 100 years to see an actual decline, whereas reducing methane shows results almost
immediately with significant results within decades. So the proposed solutions are even
farther from the mark than the actual constructive change.
Additionally, livestock is responsible for 65% of all emissions of nitrous oxide – a
greenhouse gas 296 x more destructive than carbon dioxide and which stays in the
atmosphere for 150 years.
Put in comparative terms, your average car produces 3-12 kg/day of CO2. but to clear rainforest
to produce beef for one hamburger produces 75 kg of CO2. Eating one pound of hamburger
does the same damage as driving your car for more than three weeks.
But is animal agriculture ever mentioned by any of the top environmental organizations
or environmentalists in relation to global warming? No. They focus on alternative energy
when converting to wind and solar power will take 20+ years and roughly 43 trillion dollars,
and going vegan takes seconds and can be even cheaper than being non-vegan.
Issue Two: Water Conservation
Environmental protection agencies recommend to use less water, take shorter showers, use
a low flow shower head. Now here is where you’ll find the greatest variation from
my original calculations based on a 5 gallon per minute shower head. This time around I
found that the typical shower head after 1980 emits 2.5 gallons/minute with the low flow
emitting no more than 2gpm. If you take daily 15 minute showers with a low-flow shower head
you’ll be saving 2,737.5 gallons per year. If, instead, you forgo one pound of beef one
time, you’ll save 2,500 gallons of water for ONE POUND OF BEEF. That is a conservative
number as figures range all the way to over 8,000 gallons of water for one pound of beef.
477 gallons of water are required to produce 1lb. of eggs; almost 900 gallons of water
are needed for 1lb. of cheese. and 1,000 gallons or liters of water are required to produce 1 gallon or liter of milk.
Environmental agencies focus almost exclusively on curbing home water usage, but only 5% of
water consumed in the US is by private homes, while 55% of water consumed in the US is for
animal agriculture, and 20-33% of all fresh water consumption in the world today. That’s
up to a third of the planets water for animal agriculture.
If you didn’t consume beef, eggs, milk, or cheese, not even counting other meats or
other dairy items, based on American consumption habits from 2000
and the conservative figures of water per pound, you’d save 222,345 gallons
of water that year.
But the environmental agencies prefer saving 1,825-2,737.5 gallons a year by using a low
flow shower-head.
Oh and the little trendy Greek Yogurts out there? 90 gallons of water for a
6 oz. serving. And one stick of butter takes 109 gallons.
If we added all forms of dairy and meat for the average American in 2000, which is
less dairy and more meat than the data I had for my first video, and use a very conservative
average of 1,500 gallons per pound for the remaining meat as each type varies and
even more conservative 600 gallons for the remaining dairy, a vegan year would save approximately
724,925 gallons.
Not only does that blow every water conservation recommendation out of the water, but with
the new calculations, forget what I’ve said before about not showering. You would
have to not shower AT ALL for over 66 years if you took daily 15 minute showers or close
to 100 years if you took daily 10 minute showers, both with a water saving shower head.
And the advice of the supposed environmental champions: shower less, turn off the water
while soaping your hands, run your sprinklers at night. Because that’s how we’re going
to change the world.
Issue Three: Fracking, no I did not curse…
Fracking is the new golden child of environmentalists and their leading organizations. Fracking
is destroying the planet! It’s polluting the waters. In the United States alone, fracking
uses from 70-140 billion gallons of water. Keep in mind for the big numbers that a thousand
seconds is 17 minutes, a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31.7 years,
and a trillion seconds is 31,709.8 years.
In the United States alone, animal agriculture uses from 34-76 trillion gallons annually.
Taking into account the exponential difference between a billion and a trillion, animal agriculture
in the United States consumes anywhere from 486 to over a 1,000 times more water than fracking,
the largest threat to water according to environmentalists.
Issue Four: Ocean Dead Zones and Over-Fishing
Some of the worst human-created devastation is in our oceans. 3/4 of the world’s fisheries
are exploited. 90 million tons of fish are pulled from our oceans each year. For every
1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded
as by-kill. We could see fishless oceans by 2048.
And what’s the suggestion of the major ocean protection organizations? Sustainable fishing.
There’s no way to make 100 million tons of fish by 2050 sustainable, especially given
the 5 pounds of by catch for every one pound of fish.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones with livestock operations
on land having created more than 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones around the world in our oceans.
Issue Five: Waste Management
Environmental agencies focus on industrial waste and the sanitation of human
waste while a farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000
people and it is entirely untreated. In fact, every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement
are produced by animals raised for food in the US alone. This doesn’t include animals
raised outside of USDA jurisdiction or in backyards, or the billions of fish raised
in aquaculture settings in the US and it all has no proper management system leading to
ground water and ocean pollution.
Perhaps they don’t want to address the fecal issue because they themselves are full of…moving on.
Issue Six: Species Extinction
10,000 years ago 99% of the biomass (i.e. zoo-mass) was wild animals, today, humans and the animals
that we raise as food make up 98% of the zoo-mass, with wild animals comprising only 2%. Up to 137
plant, animal, and insect species are lost every day due to rainforest destruction, the
leading cause of which, as we shall see, is animal agriculture. We are currently facing
the largest mass extinction in 65 million years.
The Alliance for Global Conservation estimates 36 percent of all species on our planet are
in danger of extinction. And what are the major species protection organizations recommending?
Wildlife rehabilitation and conservation, fighting poaching, and breeding programs.
Way to throw a bandaid on an open artery. I’m sure it will hold.
Issue Seven: Habitat Destruction, Land Usage & Deforestation
A third of the planet is desertified, with livestock as the leading cause.
Nearly half of the contiguous United States is devoted to animal agriculture.
1.5 acres can produce 37,000 pounds of plant-based food and only 375 pounds of meat.
The land required to feed 1 vegan for 1 year is 1/6th of an acre. It is 3x as much for a vegetarian
and 18x as much for a meat-eater.
You can grow 15x more protein on any given area of land with plants, rather than animals.
136 million rainforest acres have been cleared for animal agriculture with 1-2 acres of rainforest
being cleared every second.
In fact animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of Amazon destruction.
A single quarter pounder burger takes 55 square feet of rainforest to produce.
But what do the major rainforest protection agencies focus on primarily? Palm oil and pulp production.
Now for the Too Long Didn’t Watch version:
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global
warming, uses a third of the earth’s fresh water, up to 45% of the Earth’s land, is
responsible for 91% of Amazon destruction with 1-2 acres being cleared every second,
and is a leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, and habitat destruction.
Environmental agencies not only do not focus on animal agriculture, the absolute most devastating
and pervasive single cause of multi-dimensional environmental destruction, but they actually
refuse to even acknowledge it. And individual environmentalists, by and large, perhaps as
a consequence or by their own social indoctrination, aren’t even aware of this issue despite
devoting themselves to championing the environment.
For the wrap up:
The ACTUAL problem is animal agriculture and the ACTUAL solution is a vegan diet. A person
who follows a vegan diet PRODUCES the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide, uses 1/11th oil,
1/13th water, and 1/18th land compared to a meat-lover for their food, and every day
saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square ft. of forested land, 20 lbs of
CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life.
Given all of these facts, it’s abundantly clear that veganism is THE ONLY answer to
the environmental crisis and the environmental organizations collective failure to recognize
this fact leaves them with a wrongness tally total of: qualifying them for an ultimate
score of More Full of Fecal Matter Than the 7 Million Tons Produced Every Second By Farm
Animals in the United States!
It’s time to get real. You cannot be an environmentalist and a non-vegan. It’s now
beyond “personal choice” and allowing everyone their dietary preference. The earth
cannot sustain the way that we eat. It is a fact and it’s fast approaching critical mass.
At this point there is no reason to keep eating animals other than the purely selfish
reason of not wanting to change our habits. If we want our children to have a world to
live on, we have to stop being so childish ourselves regarding our diets and cut out the crap.
I hope you enjoyed this fact-riddled nugget. Please share it around to wake people up to
the importance of this issue and feel free to tag any of the major environmental agencies
when you share. The time it took to produce this video clocks in at about [68 hours]
If you'd like to help support Bite Size Vegan so I can keep putting in the long hours to bring
you this educational resource, please check out the support links in the video description
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Wednesday, and some Fridays, and to not miss out on the rest of the “Everything Wrong With"
series. And hey, check out some of the related videos while you’re here for more information.
And remember, citations for everything I talked about are in the blog post for this video
which is linked up below and in the sidebar.
Now go live vegan, save the world, and I’ll see you soon.
Man, I feel like I was at an auction.
You know...55!...45!...blahlala!....2 dollars!
I should just keep doing this.