Less Meat, Less Heat Says Climate Change Chair & Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Guest guest]

Less Meat, Less Heat: IPCC Chairman Insists on Eating Less MeatAugust 31

Gent ,

Belgium . On Saturday, Rachendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Peace prize winner, lectured at length about the effects of meat consumption on climate change. Dr. Pachauri was invited by the Belgian vegetarian organisation EVA and addressed more than 600 people at the

University of

Ghent . The event was called "Less Meat, Less Heat" and was organized together with Greenpeace

Belgium and WWF Belgium.Dr Pachauri said that in order to counter climate change, lifestyle changes are very important. One of the potentially most beneficial lifestyle changes, according to the IPCC president, would be the switch to a diet with less meat and more vegetarian meals.Addressing his Belgian audience, Dr. Pachauri made the following comparison: if during one year, all Belgians would just have one meatless day a week, this would have the same beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emission as taking almost one million cars off the Belgian roads for an entire year. Dr. Pachauri said meat production is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to emission of methane from ruminants (cows, sheep and goats), emissions from manure, and the effects of deforestation for cattle grazing and animal feed. He also pointed out that producing a kilogram of beef requires about 15.000 liters of water.Dr. Pachauri ended his talk by a quote from Gandhi: 'be the change you want to see in the world'. He said we each need to take our responsibility and can create a big effect by individual actions, decreasing our meat intake being one of them.After the talk, Tobias Leenaert of vegetarian organisation EVA presented five policy recommendations for meat reduction, signed by about 20 environmental and other organizations. Leenaert: "A lower meat intake would be beneficial on so many levels, not just on climate change and other environmental problems, but also on public health, animal welfare, and the world hunger problem. Still, government and politicians are not taking this issue seriously." The policy recommendations include setting a good example by offering sustainable vegetarian food in government funded restaurants, focusing more on sustainable food in school lunch programmes and education in general, a government campaign about the benefits of eating less meat, and making the production and sale of sustainable food products more profitable.Source: www.vegetarisme.be/pachauri

See also http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink

 

[Guest guest]

here is an article for anybody doubting the importance of

vegetarianism!!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7600005.stm

 

Margaret Morin wrote:

 

 

>Less Meat, Less

>Heat: IPCC Chairman Insists on Eating Less Meat

>

>August 31

>

> Gent ,

> Belgium . On Saturday, Rachendra

>Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and

Nobel Peace

>prize winner, lectured at length about the effects of meat consumption

on

>climate change. Dr. Pachauri was invited by the Belgian vegetarian

organisation

>EVA and addressed more than 600 people at the

> University of

> Ghent . The event was called " Less Meat,

>Less Heat " and was organized together with Greenpeace

> Belgium

>and WWF Belgium.

>

>Dr Pachauri said that in order to counter climate

>change, lifestyle changes are very 

>important. One of the potentially most beneficial lifestyle changes,

>according to the IPCC president, would be the switch to a diet with

less meat

>and more vegetarian meals.

>

>Addressing his Belgian audience, Dr. Pachauri

>made the following comparison: if during one year, all Belgians would

just have

>one meatless day a week, this would have the same beneficial effect on

>greenhouse gas emission as taking almost one million cars off the

Belgian roads

>for an entire year.

>

>Dr. Pachauri said meat production is responsible for

>18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to emission of

methane from

>ruminants (cows, sheep and goats), emissions from manure, and the

effects of

>deforestation for cattle grazing and animal feed. He also pointed out

that

>producing a kilogram of beef requires about 15.000 liters of water.

>

>Dr.

>Pachauri ended his talk by a quote from Gandhi: 'be the change you want

to see

>in the world'. He said we each need to take our responsibility and can

create a

>big effect by individual actions, decreasing our meat intake being one

of

>them.

>

>After the talk, Tobias Leenaert of vegetarian organisation EVA

>presented five policy recommendations for meat reduction, signed by

about 20

>environmental and other organizations. Leenaert: " A lower meat intake

would be

>beneficial on so many levels, not just on climate change and other

environmental

>problems, but also on public health, animal welfare, and the world

hunger

>problem. Still, government and politicians are not taking this issue

seriously. "

>

>

>The policy recommendations include setting a good example by offering

>sustainable vegetarian food in government funded restaurants, focusing

more on

>sustainable food in school lunch programmes and education in general, a

>government campaign about the benefits of eating less meat, and making

the

>production and sale of sustainable food products more profitable.

>

>Source:

>www.vegetarisme.be/pachauri

>See also

http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink

> 

>

>

>