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Archived Rebuttal
This is the archived Intermediate rebuttal to the climate myth "Animal agriculture and eating meat are the biggest causes of global warming". Click here to view the latest rebuttal.
What the science says...
The burning of fossil fuels for energy and animal agriculture are two of the biggest contributors to global warming, along with deforestation. Globally, fossil fuel-based energy is responsible for about 60% of human greenhouse gas emissions, with deforestation at about 18%, and animal agriculture between 14% and 18% (estimates from the World Resources Institute, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and Piteski et al. 2009).
Global human greenhouse gas emissions flowchart, from the World Resources Institute.
So, animal agriculture and meat consumption are significant contributors to global warming, but far less so than fossil fuel combustion.
Updated on 2015-11-26 by dana1981.
THE ESCALATOR
(free to republish)