How Are We Going To End Deforestation?
Leave a CommentIn the last forty years almost 40% of all rain-forests have been cleared for livestock production.
Although up until recently most of the meat production has been to service the needs of the developed world, a new and more worrying scenario is developing.
As the economies of developing countries grow, in particular Asian countries, greater stress is put on the worlds food supply.Those who once could hardly afford one meal a day are now eating two. The worry however, is that the extra money in peoples pockets now makes meat more affordable. What once was a rarity is now an everyday experience!
The consequences of this are not too difficult to fathom. The greater demand for meat products inevitably requires further deforestation to clear the way for livestock production. In fact, it has been estimated that the demand for meat will double by the year 2050.
How much more land will have to cleared to meet our future needs?
At the moment, we use 30% of the worlds soil for farming. There are already approximately one and a half billion cattle on the earth and nearly 1.8 billion sheep. When you consider that 70% of all agricultural land is used for raising livestock and that a third of all crop production is used for extra feed for animals – how are we going to possibly cope with future demand?
The fact is we can’t keep moving in the direction we have been without developing serious problems. Deforestation is responsible for nearly 25% of global carbon emissions, nearly as much as the industry and transport sectors put together. But it doesn’t end there! greenhouse gas emissions produced by animal farming (methane and nitrous oxide) are actually many more times damaging to our eco system, part for part, than CO2.
What makes the the problem greater is that deforested land makes for poor farming. People who farm this land often have to move on and clear more forests just to maintain production. By the year 2050 there will be no tropical rain-forests left!
How do we stop this vicious cycle of deforestation? Only by acting as one to cut the demands we are making and by helping third world countries restore the forests they once had. When the demand stops the supply will dry up. In the West we already eat far too much protein than we need, just by halfing our intake of meat products and following a green diet plan we can cut our carbon footprint a lot more than we can by giving up our cars! It takes just $100 to save 25000 sq feet of rain-forest ( see arborday.org), enough to combat the effects of driving an automobile for about 14000 miles.
We can all do our bit to save the planet, we just have to start now!
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