NEW YORK, NEW YORK, December 15, 2022 (NY Times, by Michael Grunwald): Earth is in the midst of the worst mass extinction since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago — and this time, the asteroid is us. Human beings are displacing the planet’s other species at an unprecedented rate, a disaster that the landmark U.N. Biodiversity Conference known as COP15 is focused on this week in Montreal. We’re a unique menace, but we at least have a unique ability to recognize it and do something about it.
The basic problem is that we’ve converted half of Earth’s habitable land into agricultural land. We’re destroying and degrading the habitats of other species to grow food for our own. If we are serious about cleaning up the mess we’re making for less influential species, there are four things individuals as well as nations and corporations can do.
The first is to eat less meat. Limiting access to cheeseburgers can turn politicians into ex-politicians, so it’s no coincidence that the Montreal draft mentions changing diets only in passing in its 16th target. Livestock chew up far more land per calorie than crops. Producing beef is 100 times as land-intensive as cultivating potatoes and 55 times as land-intensive as peas or nuts. Livestock now use nearly 80 percent of agricultural land while producing less than 20 percent of calories. Cattle are the leading driver of deforestation in the Amazon, followed by soybeans, another commodity, which get fed to pigs and chickens. Meat consumption is expected to increase dramatically as billions of the global poor escape poverty. If Americans continue to average three burgers a week while the developing world starts to follow our path, it’s hard to see how the Amazon survives.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/opinion/food-diets-meat-biodiverstiy-cop15.html