Global Warming Contest

Discover the facts!
Take the test!
WIN AN IPOD!!

Contest is now closed. Congratulations to Samantha Funk! She discovered the facts about global warming and animals, and won a blue ipod nanon in the process!


Katrina... Ike... tornadoes... tsunamis... floods... droughts...heat waves... ice storms ... many scientists believe that the number and intensity of recent severe weather events may be associated with global warming. And what causes global warming? According to the United Nations, one of the leading contributors is our meat-based diet.

The 2006 U.N. report on global warming, titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined.

You have read about carbon dioxide - and there is a lot of talk about reducing our “carbon footprint”. But what about nitrous oxide? it is 300 times more potent as a global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Where does it come from? According to the U.N., the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for 65 percent of world-wide nitrous oxide emissions.

But that’s not all. Farmed animals produce methane, both during digestion and through feces. Methane is more than 20 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency found that animal agriculture is the number one source of methane emissions in the US.

So... Hummer or hamburger? The University of Chicago reports that going vegan is 50% more effective than switching to a hybrid car in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (A vegan - pronounced "vee'gun" - doesn’t use any animal products - including meat, dairy, or eggs.)

And what about the other environmental impacts of our meat-based diet? We have been told to conserve water. Well, it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegan diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. In fact, you save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year. The U.N. says that livestock production consumes eight percent of the world’s water (mainly to irrigate animal feed).

And that’s not all the U.N. found. Our meat production causes 55 percent of land erosion and sediment; uses 37 percent of all pesticides; directly or indirectly results in 50 percent of all antibiotic use; and dumps a third of all nitrogen and phosphorous into our fresh water supplies.

For our meat producers, degradation of fresh water is just collateral damage. For example, a pig produces as much waste in a week as three or four people -- eight liquid gallons of manure. This manure is stored in giant outdoor “pig lagoons”. When one of these lagoons ruptures, the environmental damage is catastrophic. The biggest hog farm spill happened in 1995. The dike of a 120,000-square-foot lagoon broke, releasing 25.8 million gallons of effluvium into the New River in North Carolina. It was the biggest environmental spill in United States history, more than twice as big as the Exxon Valdez. The toxic sludge took almost two months to make its way sixteen miles downstream to the ocean. Every creature living in the river was killed - millions of fish.

It is no wonder that, throughout time, many of our most brilliant thinkers (Socrates, Pythagorus, Plato, Leonardo Da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison) have been vegetarian. In fact, Albert Einstein said, “nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

But you don’t have to be a genius to see the benefits. You may decide to give up meat because you know that our factory farms cause immense suffering to the billions of animals that we raise to consume; or because a vegan diet reduces your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes; or because you believe you owe the earth’s starving children a chance to live, and a vegan diet uses less of the earth’s precious resources (nearly half of the world’s grains are fed to livestock); or because you love driving your Hummer - but want to do your part to prevent global warming. Whatever the reason, your dietary choices have a profound impact on this world we inhabit. Choose wisely.

And now, the test!

1. The title of the 2006 U.N. report on global warming is:
a.) Gas Guzzlers Raise the Heat
b.) Hot, Hot, Hot!
c.) What Global Warming?
d.) Livestock’s Long Shadow

2. Which of the following contributes the most to global warming:
a.) Automobiles
b.) Airplanes
c.) Rush Limbaugh
d.) The meat industry

3. A vegan:
a.) Is someone who doesn’t eat or use any animal products
b.) Is almost always very smart
c.) Has a smaller carbon footprint than a meat-eater
d.) All of the above (Hint: vegans wrote this test)

4. A pig lagoon is:
a.) The name of a Disney theme park
b.) A pool frequented by male chauvinists
c.) A nickname for the tavern where police officers hang out
d.) A lake of feces

5. Albert Einstein said:
a.) “e=mc2”
b.) “I love to eat steak.”
c.) “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
d.) Both a and c above.


Congratulations!

You have uncovered the facts that just might save the world.

Full name:
Email:
Phone:


We will draw a name from all entries at our meeting in May. If you win, we will contact you - and announce your name on this web site.

Good luck!

[If you have any trouble with the form, you can email the information directly to actcontest@live.com.]

 
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