Humans Are Destroying The Environment

There is no doubt that humans all need food to live, but will this be at the expense of destroying the planet? Our home? Living in the cities you do not see the destruction that agriculture is having on the world. It is the leading cause of a multitude of global issues: the warming of our planet, the melting of the ice caps, and water contamination. The livestock and animal agriculture industry is huge. Some 40% of the entire world’s land surface is used for the sole purpose of keeping all 7 billion of us fed. A vast majority of that land, about 30% of the world’s ice-free surface, is used not to grow fruits, vegetables and grains that would be directly fed to human beings, but rather to fuel the pigs, chickens and cattle that we eventually …show more content…
In 2050 you could be set to have the global temperatures rise by 1.4-3.0 degrees Celsius. Our planet is becoming increasingly warmer. As the polar ice caps start to melt the sea levels rise, which means that the world 's ice-free land space will decrease. It is greenhouse gases [carbon dioxide, methane] which cause an increase in global temperatures. A staggering 51% or more of our world’s greenhouse gas emission are caused directly by animal culture. Methane one of the leading contributors to climate change. Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than carbon dioxide during a 20 year time frame. It is scary to think that everyday cattle are producing 150 billion gallons of this destruction gas, …show more content…
In New Zealand alone, as of 2013, there were nearly 3.7 million beef cattle, over 6.4 million dairy cattle, and over 30 million sheep. It is not until now that we are beginning to see the ramifications of our country 's actions. With the recent case of Campylobacter contaminated water in Havelock North, which was suspected to, as quoted by Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule; “flooding had swept faeces from livestock into the water