Causes

Natural Causes

The sun, or course, is the primary cause of global warming. Without the sun, the earth would be ice cold and uninhabitable. Other significant factors in global warming are volcanoes, water vapor, and the release of methane gas from arctic tundra and wetlands. Methane is a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Natural effects cause the earth to go through a cycle of climate change lasting about 40,000 years.

Fossil Fuels and Carbon Dioxide

Natural causes of global warming don't explain the sudden rise in temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations. The recent event of the industrial age and the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and over population are now known to play a significant role in recent global warming.

Coal, oil, and natural gas are fossil fuels and are made up of ancient plant material and are finite resources and non-renewable. "The oil we're burning in two centuries took hundreds of millions of years to form. When the Russian chemist D.I. Mendelyeev figured out what it was, he exclaimed it was far too precious to burn. We've been burning it ever since-ten thousand gallons a second in America alone. Each gallon of gasoline took eons to form (very inefficiently) from a quarter-million pounds of primeval plants. Thus the average U.S. light vehicle each day burns 100 times its weight in ancient plants in the form of gasoline."9

Coal, oil, and natural gas are used for producing energy - generating electricity for our homes and transportation. And they all create carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned. Coal is the nastiest offender and produces the most carbon when burned, followed by oil and natural gas.

The True Cost of Coal

From cradle to grave, ground to ash, the damages coal causes to our environment and society are enormous. Coal-fired power plants produce about half of our nation’s electricity, and in 2006 a record 1.161 billion tons of coal was mined, most of which went directly to electricity generation. Unfortunately, coal is also one of the most polluting sources of energy available, jeopardizing our health and our environment. Coal-fired power plants is responsible for 60% of U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions, 33% of U.S. mercury emissions, 25% of nitrogen oxide emissions, and more than 40% of the nation's carbon dioxide air emissions.

coal power plant Below is a summary of the devasting effects of coal from the Sierra Club report , " The Dirty Truth About Coal: Why Yesterday's Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow's Energy Future."

From mining to burning to combustion wastes, using coal for electricity scars lungs, tears up the land, pollutes water, devastates communities, and makes global warming worse.

Global Warming Pollution: Beyond conventional air pollution, coal mining is also a source of global warming pollution. Methane, a global warming gas more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide, is found trapped around seams of coal. It is released from the surrounding rocks when coal is mined, as well as during coal washing and transportation. Coal mining releases about 26 percent of all energy-related methane emissions in the U.S. each year.

Even though coal-fired power plants generate just about half of our nation’s electricity, they account for over 80 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from electricity production in the U.S. In fact, coal-fired power plants have the highest output rate of carbon dioxide (or carbon intensity) per unit of electricity among all fossil fuels. The dangers of carbon dioxide pollution and global warming are becoming clearer every day, and scientists continue to report on the effects of global warming that are already being observed around the world. Left unchecked, these damages will continue to grow, and will lead to increased water shortages, widespread malnutrition, increased deaths from intense weather events, widespread flooding of coastal areas, increased rates of extinction and loss of biodiversity, and changes in precipitation patterns, among other problems. Unaddressed global warming will have serious consequences on our health, food, water, ecosystems, and coasts.

Mining: Coal mining can cause irreparable harm to the natural landscape, both during mining and after. Trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area, destroying forests and wildlife habitat, encouraging soil erosion and floods, and stirring up dust pollution that can cause respiratory problems in local communities.

Above ground, millions of acres across 36 states have been dynamited, torn and churned into bits by strip mining in the last 150 years. More than 60 percent of all coal mined in the United States today, in fact, comes from strip mines.

Appalachia has become the poster child for strip mining's worst depravations, which come in the form of mountaintop removal. Mining companies literally blow the tops off mountains to reach thin seams of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys and streams below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape. An estimated 750,000 to 1 million acres of hardwood forests, a thousand miles of waterways and more than 470 mountains and their surrounding communities -- an area the size of Delaware -- have been erased from the southeastern mountain range in the last two decades. Thousands of tons of explosives -- the equivalent of several Hiroshima atomic bombs -- are set off in Appalachian communities every year.

This destructive practice has damaged or destroyed approximately 1,200 miles of streams, disrupted drinking water supplies, flooded communities, eliminated forests, and destroyed wildlife habitat.7 Coal companies have created at least 6,800 fills to hold their mining wastes, and the government estimates that if this mining continues unabated in Appalachia it will destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020—the date when the coal is expected to run out.

Underground mining, including an intensive method known as longwall mining, leaves behind empty underground spaces which can collapse and cause the land above to sink. Known as subsidence, this process can cause serious structural damage to homes, buildings, and roads when the land collapses beneath them.

Water Pollution: Coal mining is frequently associated with water pollution, including acid mine drainage. One source of acid drainage is from gobs, or piles of waste coal and other rocks that are cast aside during mining. Another more common source of mine drainage is abandoned mines that fill with water that becomes acidic and mixes with heavy metals and minerals.18 When this toxic water leaks out, it combines with groundwater and streams, causing water pollution and damaging soils. Acid mine drainage can harm plants, animals, and humans. For example, in Pennsylvania alone acid mine drainage has polluted more than 3,000 miles of streams and ground waters, which affects all four major river basins in the state. The toxic pollution has even led to places termed “no fish,” or streams where fish cannot survive because the water is so polluted. Acid mine drainage has also been a problem for the past two decades in western Maryland, where officials have documented 342 leaks of toxic water and where a new discharge killed all of the fish in the Georges Creek in 2006.

Coal preparation, or “washing,” is another source of water pollution. Coal preparation uses large quantities of water and chemicals to separate impurities from mined coal to make it easier to burn. Using anywhere from 20 to 40 gallons of water per ton of coal,21 coal washing separates out non-combustible components, which can be up to 50 percent of what is processed, and typically washes them away in a sludge known as slurry.22 Up to 90 million gallons of slurry are produced every year in the U.S.23 Coal slurry is stored in large waste pits known as impoundments that hold millions of gallons of coal mining wastes. Some of the risks involved with impoundments include seepage into local water supplies and impoundment breaks that can send wastes barreling down mudflows, destroying property and lives in its path.

Air Pollution From smog to mercury to carbon dioxide, coal fired power plants are one of the largest sources of air pollution in the U.S. The consequences for human health are staggering, especially with regards to particle pollution, one of the most dangerous— and deadly—types of air pollution in our country. Particle pollution, also known as soot, can be released directly from smokestacks or indirectly through other pollutants like sulfur dioxide (SO2) that react in the air to form tiny particles.

Soot is particularly dangerous to people because it can be inhaled deep into the lungs where the smallest of particles cross directly into the blood stream just like oxygen. Soot can trigger heart attacks and strokes, worsen asthma, cause irregular heartbeat, and lead to premature death. Particle pollution also harms the environment, and is the leading cause of haze and reduced visibility in the U.S., including in our National Parks. The damages from particle pollution continue after it has settled to the ground, where it causes acidification of waters, soil nutrient depletion, and destruction of forests and crops.

Explosives used during underground and surface mining release carbon monoxide pollution, a health threat for workers. Coal mining and coal washing both stir up small dust and coal particles, which combine with other chemicals in the air and can cause serious and potentially fatal respiratory problems like black lung. Harmful air pollution is also released when coal is transported. About 75 percent of all coal shipments in the U.S. are made via railroads, which are one of the nation’s largest sources of soot and smog pollution. Both soot and smog can cause health problems, including respiratory problems and increased risk of asthma attacks. Coal-laden railcars also cause soot pollution when coal dust blows off into the surrounding air, a substantial problem considering that a typical coal plant requires 40 railcars per day to deliver the 1.4 million tons of coal needed each year. The problem of blowing coal dust from trains and trucks is clearly seen in some communities where residents routinely wipe thick layers of coal dust off their houses.

Acid Rain: The same air pollution that causes smog and soot also causes acid rain. Acid rain occurs when power plant emissions like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water and oxygen in the air to form acidic compounds that fall to the ground.71 Acid rain falls onto plants and trees and eventually ends up in lakes, streams, and the soil. Once in the environment, the acidic compounds cause different kinds of environmental damage, including damage to trees, loss of aquatic life, and detrimental changes to the soil.72 Although acid rain in the U.S. has decreased since air protections were put into place, emissions are still relatively high compared to normal conditions and continue to harm the environment.73 And, unfortunately, repeated acid rain over time can suppress the resiliency of natural systems, meaning that over time it takes longer and longer for nature to recover.

Impact on Health:

More than 104,000 miners in America have died in coal mines since 1900. Twice as many have died from black lung disease. Black lung is a group of respiratory diseases in coal miners that can cause serious lung disease and death. Known technically as pneumoconiosis or silicosis,black lung is caused by repeated exposure to coal dust and other small particles stirred up during coal mining. Symptoms include coughing, spitting up black material, shortness of breath, and eventual hardening and scarring of the lungs. Although some of the symptoms can be alleviated, there is no known cure for black lung and no reversal of the symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate that about 12,000 miners died from black lung in the U.S. in the ten-year period ending in 2002, while other estimates put the toll at about 1,500 per year. There is a strong correlation between length of exposure (years in the mine) and prevalence of black lung, with about eight percent of long-term workers affected by the disease. Mining regulations require that coal mining dust exposure be limited, but evidence suggests that these tests are faulty and sometimes even falsified.

In addition to being the largest source of sulfur dioxide pollution, coal-fired power plants are the second largest source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the nation, earning them a reputation as a major contributor to smog. Smog, or ground level ozone, forms when nitrogen oxides emitted by the plants react with sunlight and other chemicals in the air. Smog causes a wide range of symptoms like shortness of breath, increased risk of asthma attacks, permanent lung damage, and premature death.

Coal-fired power plants emit large quantities of toxic air pollutants such as chromium, lead, arsenic, hydrogen chloride, and mercury. In fact, they are one of the largest sources of man-made mercury pollution in the U.S. The average coal-fired power plant emits 366 pounds of mercury per year. After mercury is released in the exhaust, it enters the air and then rains down into our streams, lakes, and other waters where it poisons the fish and seafood that eventually make their way to our dinner tables. Mercury exposure is directly linked to eating contaminated fish, and people who eat more fish have more mercury in their blood.

In 2004, forty-seven U.S. states and territories had mercury fish consumption advisories for at least some of their waters. The mercury problem in the U.S. is so widespread that every year one in six women of childbearing age has mercury levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk. Mercury accumulates in fish and the animals and people who eat them, causing brain damage, mental retardation, and other developmental problems in unborn children and infants. Mercury impacts the babies' brains and spinal cords and produces all kinds of deformities and brain damage.

It has also been linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease in men.

Economic Losses: Coal mining can destroy sources of local revenue, including losses from tourism and recreation, such as the estimated $67 million lost annually in Pennsylvania from sport fishing because of streams too polluted from acid mine drainage. Coal mining can also damage homes and decrease property value, making it hard for people to sell their houses and move.

Smog from burning coal harms plants and trees, making it hard for them to make and store food, and can damage leaves, making them vulnerable to disease, insects, and extreme weather. Persistent smog pollution can alter and disrupt plant growth over time, leading to reductions in crop yields. In the U.S., smog pollution is estimated to cost $500 million in reduced crop production every year.

Water Resources: Coal as an energy source is a serious a threat to shrinking water supplies. Coal-fired power plants require huge amounts of water for cooling and other purposes. An average 500 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant uses more than 25 gallons of water for each kilowatt hour produced, which translates to 300 million gallons of water per day or 12 million gallons of water per hour. In the U.S., electric power plants account for 48 percent of total water withdrawals every year—an astounding 195 billion gallons of water every day.

Coal Combustion Wastes: The wastes that remain after coal is burned and turned into electricity is known collectively as coal combustion wastes - toxic byproducts that are a combination of solid and liquid wastes produced at coal plants. These wastes include parts of the coal that do not fully burn during generation like fly ash (from the smokestacks) and bottom ash (from the bottom of the boiler).110 They also include the particles and chemicals trapped by air pollution controls, like scrubber sludge or flue gas desulfurization sludge. Finally, they include many “low-volume”wastes, including runoff from coal reserve piles and liquid wastes that are formed during cleaning and routine operations.

Taken together, the amount of coal combustion wastes produced every year is staggering: more than 120 million tons of solid wastes are produced every year. This waste alone is enough to fill a million railcars every year, or a train that is 9,600 miles long. In addition, the amount of wastes and their toxicity are expected to grow significantly every year as dirty old coal-fired power plants are forced to clean up and install modern pollution controls that convert air pollutants to solid wastes.

Not only is it challenging to find a place to store so much coal combustion waste safely, but even after it is stored coal combustion waste can leak out and pollute the surrounding environment and groundwater. At landfills, leaks can occur when contaminated water percolates through the wastes or when water washes over exposed areas and carries off contaminants.

In 2005, there were 24 acknowledged cases of environmental pollution from leaking landfills and impoundments, and many more suspected cases.124 These leaking coal wastes and polluted runoffs can be extremely toxic and dangerous. Containing elements like lead, mercury, and arsenic in toxic doses. Coal waste contamination has been linked to changes in wildlife concentrations and disruptions in entire ecosystems. Vegetation growing on or nearby coal waste disposal sites also exhibit signs of damage, including reduced growth and die offs. These toxic compounds can accumulate in exposed animals and plants, causing the toxics to make their way up the food chain when they are eaten. People are exposed to these wastes through contact with contaminated soils, inhaling polluted dust, and eating plants and animals that have been exposed.

However, the single greatest threat of human exposure is from polluted groundwater and drinking waters sources.133 The toxins found in coal wastes have been linked to organ disease, increased cancer, respiratory illness, neurological damage, and developmental problems.134 Additionally, children who are exposed to coal combustion waste toxins are more likely to experience adverse reactions than adults.135 In the mid-90s, the EPA estimated that more than 21 million people, including more than six million children, lived within five miles of a coal-fired power plant,136 a daunting figure considering that most coal combustion wastes are stored onsite. Pollution has been so bad in some locations that sites were classified as hazardous and drinking water wells had to be closed.

A significant factor in coal combustion waste pollution is the lack of stringent federal regulations and safety requirements. In 2000, the EPA reaffirmed a 20 year old decision not to regulate coal combustion wastes as hazardous, choosing to continue sidestepping meaningful protections by classifying them as “special wastes.” One indication of the inadequacy of this approach is that many of these waste facilities continue to operate without any type of lining to prevent leakage, including about half of the landfills and over three fourths of the impoundments. 147 Furthermore, most states do not require groundwater monitoring, and many do not require waste facilities to obtain state permits. Most coal combustion wastes are stored indefinitely, and may continue to jeopardize the environment and humans for generations to come.

A Future without Coal - The Only Sustainable Option: The consequences of burning coal for electricity do not normally weigh into our national discussions about our energy future. The costs of using coal are high and are continuing to rise, especially as our understanding of the consequences of global warming grows.

The coal industry knows that the equation must change or they will be out of business—that is why they are pushing putative “clean” coal. But, coal as it exists today is anything but clean. Ambiguously defined, “clean coal” has become little more than an empty technological promise of a different way of doing business. Coal advocates, including the people and politicians who benefit the most from Big Coal’s checkbook, point to technological innovations they claim can help lessen the worst impacts of burning coal. Ironically, what they do not reveal is that industry has been fighting standards to clean up coal plants tooth and nail since the Clean Air Act was passed, and that a lot of older plants still do not have even the most basic— and readily available—pollution control devices. These coal advocates also fail to look at the full life cycle of coal, focusing their sight on the more wellknown damages caused during the burn.

The two supposedly “clean coal” technologies that have attracted the most attention in recent years are carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC). Carbon capture and sequestration is a process where carbon dioxide produced at coal-fired power plants is captured from the plant’s exhaust and then stored underground to prevent it from entering the atmosphere. Although in theory CCS sounds promising, the challenges are enormous, ranging from separating out the CO2 and transporting it to figuring out how to make sure it stays sealed off for thousands of years to come. In addition, the scale needed to store all of the carbon dioxide pollution from our nation’s coal-fired plants is massive, and would require huge undertakings to ensure that it does not leak into the atmosphere. As of now, carbon capture and storage has not been demonstrated with anything approaching the emissions of a coalfired power plant and remains an unproven technology. Experts also disagree as to how long it will take for this technology to be available for commercial and wide-scale use.

The second technology, Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), is an alternative system for coal-fired power plants that converts coal to a gas that is burned to produce electricity. IGCC is often promoted as the easiest system to retrofit to capture carbon dioxide emissions in the future should CCS work out. Proponents also like IGCC because it can emit lower amounts of soot and smog pollution. However, it emits just as much global warming pollution as other coal plants, not to mention the environmental and societal damages caused by mining the coal to fuel the plant and all of the additional coal combustion wastes. Until carbon capture and storage technologies are better developed, the carbon dioxide emissions will be much the same as any other coal plant.

The truth is that promises of these and other future technological innovations that will allow us to use coal with less pollution are not available today. Not surprisingly, these same “clean coal” advocates are also behind efforts to jumpstart a new “coal-toliquids” industry. Liquid coal creates almost double the carbon dioxide emissions per gallon as regular gasoline, and replacing just 10 percent of our nation’s fuel with it would require a more than 40 percent increase in coal mining. On top of these environmental damages, liquid coal needs billions of dollars of government subsidies and incentives to be viable, money that could be much better spent cleaning up our current use of coal and shifting toward cleaner sources of energy. Taxpayers gambled on liquid coal synfuels 30 years ago and lost billions of dollars, a lesson we should not have to learn twice.

The inescapable conclusion is that mining coal leads to environmental destruction, polluted waters, and devastated communities. Burning coal causes serious air pollution, jeopardizes our public health, and contributes substantially to global warming. Coal wastes also put our health at risk, polluting drinking water and harming people who live near landfills and impoundments. These dirty secrets have serious societal and economic impacts that need to be calculated into our decisions about the energy future we are building now.

The challenge of cleaning up the way we mine and use coal is not small by any means. On average, our country consumes more than three million tons of coal every day, or about 20 pounds of coal for every person in the nation every day of the year. We mine more than 1.1 billion tons of coal a year, and generate about half of our electricity from coal. To minimize the devastating effects of the way we currently use coal, we need to strengthen our nation’s laws and put policies into place to protect our communities and our environment.

Some of these have already been proposed, like restoring the Clean Water Act’s prohibition on filling streams and wetlands with waste. We owe it to our children to consider smarter, cleaner, healthier options for meeting our energy needs rather than locking ourselves into using a polluting, backward technology for the next 50 years that harms people, damages our environment, and makes global warming much worse. We need to change course - and quickly. There are clean, renewable energy solutions available today that we should be investing our future in - while we still have a future.

Learn more about coal at the Sierra Club web site. .

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide is necessary keep our planet habitable by warming the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere, just like what happens on a sunny day inside our cars. That's why carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas.

But by burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect is greatly amplified. Recent human activity from the burning of fossil fuels and clearing forests have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are quickly and dangerously rising.

It is estimated that over the last century the temperature of the Earth’s surface has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit. Most of this temperature rise has taken place over the last 50 years and can be attributed primarily to human activities.

The first half of 2006 was the warmest on record in the U.S. - 3.4 degrees above the 20th century record. January through June 2006 was the warmest first half of any year in the continental United States since records began in 1895, according to preliminary data reported by scientists at the National Climatic Data Center.

Livestock Methane

President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens.

Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It turns out that raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.

That's right, global warming. You've probably heard the story: emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are changing our climate, and scientists warn of more extreme weather, coastal flooding, spreading disease, and mass extinctions. It seems that when you step outside and wonder what happened to winter, you might want to think about what you had for dinner last night. The U.N. report says almost a fifth of global warming emissions come from livestock (i.e., those chickens Hoover was talking about, plus pigs, cattle, and others)--that's more emissions than from all of the world's transportation combined.

For a decade now, the image of Leonardo DiCaprio cruising in his hybrid Toyota Prius has defined the gold standard for environmentalism. These gas-sipping vehicles became a veritable symbol of the consumers' power to strike a blow against global warming. Just think: a car that could cut your vehicle emissions in half - in a country responsible for 25% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Federal fuel economy standards languished in Congress, and average vehicle mileage dropped to its lowest level in decades, but the Prius showed people that another way is possible. Toyota could not import the cars fast enough to meet demand.

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels--and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide--as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the vast quantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops. Animal agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland, and feed crops cover much of the remainder. These forests serve as "sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and burning these forests releases all the stored carbon dioxide, quantities that exceed by far the fossil fuel emission of animal agriculture.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide, enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is responsible for about one-half of human-related greenhouse gas warming since the industrial revolution, methane and nitrous oxide are responsible for another one-third. These super-strong gases come primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes, and from their manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping 65% of our nitrous oxide.

It's a little hard to take in when thinking of a small chick hatching from her fragile egg. How can an animal, so seemingly insignificant against the vastness of the earth, give off so much greenhouse gas as to change the global climate? The answer is in their sheer numbers. The United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every year, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that can barely conceive of a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" was considered a luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20% of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet to death.

What we're seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has increased five-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to double again in the next fifty.

It sounds like a lot of bad news, but in fact it's quite the opposite. It means we have a powerful new weapon to use in addressing the most serious environmental crisis ever to face humanity. The Prius was an important step forward, but how often are people in the market for a new car? Now that we know a greener diet is even more effective than a greener car, we can make a difference at every single meal, simply by leaving the animals off of our plates. Who would have thought: what's good for our health is also good for the health of the planet!

Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius. Plus, that bang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of carbon dioxide, which spreads its warming effect slowly over a century. A big chunk of the problem with farmed animals, on the other hand, is methane, a gas which cycles out of the atmosphere in just a decade. That means less meat consumption quickly translates into a cooler planet.

Not just a cooler planet, also a cleaner one. Animal agriculture accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, emits two-thirds of the world's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and it the world's largest source of water pollution--killing entire river and marine ecosystems, destroying coral reefs, and of course, making people sick. Try to imagine the prodigious volumes of manure churned out by modern American farms: 5 million tons a day, more than a hundred times that of the human population, and far more than our land can possibly absorb. The acres and acres of cesspools stretching over much of our countryside, polluting the air and contaminating our water, make the Exxon Valdez oil spill look minor in comparison. All of which we can fix surprisingly easily, just by putting down our chicken wings and reaching for a veggie burger.

Doing so has never been easier. Recent years have seen an explosion of environmentally-friendly vegetarian foods. Even chains like Ruby Tuesday, Johnny Rockets, and Burger King offer delicious veggie burgers and supermarket refrigerators are lined with heart-healthy creamy soymilk and tasty veggie deli slices. Vegetarian foods have become staples at environmental gatherings, and garnered celebrity advocates like Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of course Leonardo DiCaprio. Just as the Prius showed us that we each have in our hands the power to make a difference against a problem that endangers the future of humanity, going vegetarian gives us a new way to dramatically reduce our dangerous emissions that is even more effective, easier to do, more accessible to everyone and certainly goes better with french fries.

Ever-rising temperatures, melting ice caps, spreading tropical diseases, stronger hurricanes... So, what are you do doing for dinner tonight? Check out www.VegCooking.com for great ideas, free recipes, meal plans, and more! Check out the environmental section of www.GoVeg.com for a lot more information about the harmful effect of meat-eating on the environment.

Population Explosion

world population chart

Another major cause of Global Warming is over-population and the resulting demand for energy and consumption of resources.

More people means more food, and more methods of transportation. That means more methane because there will be more burning of fossil fuels, and more methane producing livestock and agriculture. More people means more cars, and more cars means more pollution and carbon emissions. Since CO2 contributes to global warming, the increase in population makes the problem worse because we breathe out CO2. Also, the trees that convert our CO2 to oxygen are being demolished (deforestation) because we're using the land that we cut the trees down from as property for our homes and buildings.

The earth is heading towards an unsustainable point of no return in the growth of world population. The population is expected to increase from its current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050, with some estimates predicting up to 12 billion. If we fail to act on both overpopulation and global warming, the outlook for humanity is bleak. There are, simply, not enough resources to keep the burgeoning population alive and healthy, not to mention jobs, housing, and health care for everyone.

Despite advances in “green” technologies, increased usage of renewable energies, and changes in lifestyle, if the world population rises to the projected 9.2 billion, each person would have to slash their emissions by 72% to meet a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2050,

We are facing a “Malthusian catastrophe”, a global meltdown, predicted by Thomas Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population (first published in 1798), noting that while resources tend to grow linearly, population grows exponentially. He argued that, if left unrestricted, human populations continue to grow until they become too large to be supported by the food grown on available agricultural land, causing starvation, which then controls population growth. To avoid this happening, Malthus argued for population control through "moral restraint.” We know that “moral restraint” does not work in the abstinence-only education programs of the Bush administration. New technologies have allowed us to temporarily get around this problem, but as we continue to grow, technology alone will not save us. We must consider the moral ramifications of our actions as our population continues to grow. We must take strong measures immediately in providing family planning education and services, including contraception and access to safe abortions, around the world.

Besides global warming, some effects of overpopulation are:

  • Inadequate fresh water for drinking water use as well as sewage treatment and effluent discharge;
  • Depletion of natural resources, especially fossil fuel;
  • Increased levels of air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and noise pollution;
  • Deforestation and loss of ecosystems that sustain global atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide balance; about eight million hectares of forest are lost each year;
  • Changes in atmospheric composition and consequent global warming;
  • Irreversible loss of arable land and increases in desertification;
  • Mass species extinctions from reduced habitat in tropical forests due to slash-and-burn techniques that sometimes are practiced by shifting cultivators, especially in countries with rapidly expanding rural populations; present extinction rates may be as high as 140,000 species lost per year;
  • Increased incidence of hemorrhagic fevers, HIV and other infectious diseases from crowding, disturbance of ecological systems and scarcity of available medical resources;
  • Unhygienic living conditions for many based upon water resource depletion, discharge of raw sewage and solid waste disposal.