Letter: Fossil fuels aren’t the only problem

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I agree with Richard Boyum that driving our cars less and burning less gasoline will help to reduce CO2 emissions and alleviate climate change [“Take Responsibility for Carbon Footprint,” March 27, Xpress].

However, I have recently learned that there is another source of these emissions which most people are not aware of. That is animal agriculture and factory farming, the large-scale production of animals for food.

These practices not only produce more greenhouse gas emissions than burning fossil fuels, they are also harmful to the environment in numerous other ways, such as the destruction of forests and the poisoning of waterways.

It turns out that the best thing we can do for the Earth is to reduce our consumption of meat, at least factory-farmed meat — which is most of the meat in our grocery stores — or eliminate it from our diets completely. This may be hard to accept, but do some research and check it out.

— Susan A. Stone
Black Mountain

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2 thoughts on “Letter: Fossil fuels aren’t the only problem

  1. Jay

    If we stop eating domesticated animals today, there will still be 28 million cows, 75 million hogs, and 1.5 billion chickens out there passing gas, not to mention the 333 million people.

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