Do we really need to eat all this meat?

Sir Paul McCartney has recently highlighted a pretty big issue: that the livestock sector is worse for the environment than the transport sector. A recent united nations report found the sector generates a full 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are the scary bits:

» 70% of the Amazon forest has been turned to grazing for beef

» Livestock use 30% of the planet's surface

» Livestock emit 65% of our nitrous oxide output 

(nitrous oxide is 296 times worse than CO2 for global warming)

Even just going one day a week without meat would help. Not to mention the benefits to health and to the incredible cruelty of the meat industry. I still eat a little bit of meat, but I feel a bit guilty every time I do. I have pledged with a friend to go back to full vegetarianism on January 1, but I might secretly start now.