World leaders have been encouraged to reduce global meat and dairy output in order to achieve serious climate action.
Last Monday (May 5), a petition with over 53,000 signatures was delivered to the leaders of America, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
The petition was published by the animal rights organization Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), which stated that the situation is becoming increasingly urgent.
“Our global leaders cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand… Livestock emissions play a significant role in the current climate emergency, yet this has been virtually overlooked by world leaders,” said Sarah Moyes, senior campaigns manager at CIWF.
The Animal Farming Impact
Indeed, the 86 billion animals raised for food each year account for a substantial share of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Animal agriculture accounts for 14.5 percent of global emissions, which is more than the world’s transportation industry (which includes aircraft, trains, cars, and other vehicles) combined.
However, the industry’s environmental worries go beyond emissions. Farm animals consume 20 to 33 percent of all freshwater on the planet, while more than 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Land clearing is also required for animal-based food production, resulting in increased emissions and habitat degradation. Despite producing less than 20% of the world’s calories, livestock consumes approximately 80% of worldwide agricultural land.
Pressuring World Leaders
“We must drastically reduce our total global meat and dairy consumption, so we’ve addressed our petition to leaders of top meat-consuming countries or regions,” Moyes said.
“It’s critical these world leaders act to bring forward a meat and dairy reduction and support a shift to nature-friendly, higher welfare farming, as a matter of urgency.”
“Factory farming is significantly contributing to one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time and leaders of those countries where meat consumption is particularly high, must play their part to ensure we meet the Paris Agreement targets,” Moyes said.
“We must turn up the heat on world leaders to keep the global temperature down!”
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