Climate change is a civilization buster. And its primary cause is: livestock raising. I guess you know already. The UN FAO’s 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” was followed by related research in 2009, which found that livestock animals and their byproducts account for at least 51% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. And I know that it is 80% or even more. Newer findings published by the US National Academy of Sciences and Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research also point to the livestock industry’s huge impact on global warming.

Furthermore, livestock production occupies a full 70% of all agricultural land and nearly one-third of all the planet’s land surface. We have come to the point of climate scientists being now so extremely worried that they are even thinking of resorting to emergency ways to manipulate nature on a large scale through risky geoengineering. But if we simply return these lands to nature again, like forests and grassland, they would easily absorb a lot of emissions in the near future.

Please also note that the animal industry is the largest human-made source of methane and nitrous oxide, the greenhouse gases that are 72 times and 300 times more potent, respectively, than CO2. And methane, though being much worse than carbon dioxide, disappears many times faster, in about 12 years as opposed to centuries for CO2. Therefore, eliminating livestock production would cool the planet quickly, which is needed urgently if we think about the climate tipping points that are getting nearer.

Moreover, as the Rodale Institute in the USA determined, if the world’s tillable land were organically cultivated, then 40% of the atmospheric CO2 would automatically be absorbed by the soil. Also, one German study found that consuming organic vegan fare could reduce dietary greenhouse gas emissions up to 94%. Wow! Think about that.

Now, to briefly mention about financial cost. Dutch scientists have calculated that the powerful change to the healthy vegan diet would not only dramatically reduce global warming, it would also save 80% in climate mitigation costs by 2050.

Besides being a major water polluter, livestock consumes vast amounts of this precious resource, with as much as 200,000 liters required for each kilogram of beef, whereas only a tiny fraction of that, or 2,000 liters, is needed per kilogram of soybeans, for example. Put another way, eating four hamburgers costs a person the water equivalent of a year’s daily showers. Wow! Think of that again.

And while 1.1 billion people don’t have access to safe water, including 6,000 children who die every day from drinking polluted water (and that is on our conscience), some 1 trillion cubic meters of clean water is wasted on raising livestock. Are we really robbing our children of precious resource such as water for merely a poisonous disease-laden, disease-causing but easily replaced piece of meat? I’m sure you all agree, ladies and gentlemen, that this is not acceptable.

To meet the needs of a growing population, more and more scientists and other experts are affirming the logic and efficiency of reducing livestock so that food can be delivered to people directly. Today’s livestock are bred and fattened on nearly half of the world’s grain supply, while almost 11 million children, most of whom live in those countries where these feed grains are grown, die, ironically, of hunger each year. On the other hand, directly supplied grain could easily feed more than the entire world’s population.

Lord Stern of Brentford, United Kingdom, lead author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, proposed the avoidance of deforestation as the most economic method of managing greenhouse gas emissions. Well, 91% of the cleared Amazonian rainforest since 1970, the lungs of our Earth, can be directly or indirectly attributed to cattle raising. And, in fact, the UN FAO stated that the livestock sector is the major driver of global deforestation.

The main cause here, again, is animal products. The United Nations recently reported that continued fishing could deplete the oceans of all marine life within just a few decades. But the problem is not only fish consumption. The problem is also meat consumption, because as much as 50% of the fish killed each year, or tens of millions of tons of marine lives, are fed to livestock, not humans. Pigs and chickens consume six times more seafood than the entire American population, and twice as much as the Japanese. Think about that! So if we stop all animal products – fish, egg, meat, and dairy – we will save the oceans, save the climate; and as we find out next, we could halt also biodiversity loss.

The livestock industry is the leading cause of an alarming decline in wild species. In an October 2010 study, Dutch researchers found that protecting natural areas is not sufficient to stop these fast extinctions of flora and fauna; rather, one of the most effective policies is changing to a no-animal diet, meaning plant-based food.

Now, some of us might question: Can our world really eliminate the global meat industry and become all vegan? The facts tell us, “Yes, we can.” And our humanity’s survival instinct tells us we must.

As the respected US economist Jeremy Rifkin wrote in 2002, “[The world’s wealthier consumers] favor eating at the highest point on the global food chain while their fellow human beings starve. We are long overdue for a global discussion on how best to promote a diversified, high-protein vegan diet for the human race.”

Former US Vice President Al Gore and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director Dr. James Hansen, both referred to eliminating meat as the “single most effective thing” we can do so to reduce our carbon footprint. Climate chief Lord Stern likewise publicly stated that: “A vegetarian diet is better.” Former World Bank advisor, Dr. Robert Goodland, called these “improved diets” the “overlooked climate solution.” And Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: “A major shift toward plant-based diets is imperative if we are to have even a chance of preventing catastrophe. In terms of immediacy of action...reducing meat consumption clearly is the most attractive opportunity.”

Truly, these new opportunities for the food industry, consumers, and governments are bright. There are many stories of success from people who joined the vegan food industry, as well as farmers who switched from livestock raising to organic vegan farming. Research also tells us that plant-based alternatives to animal products are not only healthy, they use less fossil fuel energy, create more sustainable jobs, and are growing in popularity because of their quality, which also includes good taste.

Analysts also say that meat and dairy prices are set to rise steeply due to high climate risks, “peak oil,” and extreme environmental costs, while the livestock industry, which is heavily dependent on subsidies to survive already, is becoming obsolete. And we know that animal industry workers even suffer also some of the worst physical, emotional, psychological and mental conditions now. It’s high time that we advance to better and nobler ways as a society. And governments could use their subsidies for people’s greatest benefit, by supporting the Earth-saving, organic vegan farming practices and promoting a healthy, sustainable, resource-efficient food industry.

The way we are going with our consumption rate, the World Wildlife Fund researchers have said that we’d need a second planet. If world governments stop supporting livestock and fishing, and instead wisely support organic vegan food production, they will save four-fifths of climate mitigation costs, save a lot of water pollution costs, and save health costs of about US$1 trillion due to meat-related diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, food poisoning, etc., to name just a few.

Now we can prevent more than 20 million meat-related deaths worldwide per year, if we turn to the vegan diet. No more suffering for loved ones, no more early separations, no more anguish for ourselves and others; and we will enjoy naturally longer, healthier, lovelier and happier lives. Even without the “civilization busters” threatening our planet’s survival, an organic vegan diet would immensely improve the quality of our lives, spiritually also. It can curb the water and food crises and restore nature’s life-support systems. It also happens to be the most rapid, cost-effective, and the only feasible climate solution, one that every nation can easily implement.