Is this cow preparing for a trip into space? Is it a fancy-dress costume? Or could this the newest way to travel? No, this cow is having her burps and farts collected.

Researchers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are conducting a study to see just how much methane a cow produces – methane, of course, having a devastating impact on global warming. So these Argentine bods have strapped plastic tanks onto cows’ backs and stuck a tube down their throats, straight into their stomachs. According to The Telegraph, Argentina has 55 million grazing cows, and the country is one of the world’s biggest exporters of beef. So that’s a lot of methane.

Apparently, the answer to all of our concerns is to put cows on a better diet to stop them from parping and belching so much. Give me a break. When the world’s geniuses start to realise that the best thing to do in a situation (note BEST, not just ‘better’) is of much higher value than simply ‘making the best of a bad situation’, we might actually start making some progress.

Giving them clover and alfalfa will reduce their methane emissions by 25 percent. The equation needed to reach a much, much higher percentage than that piddly amount is staring everyone in the face – stop breeding tens of millions of cows and eating their flesh and milk. You could kick yourselves, right?

Thankfully the Japanese are on the right track, reporting yesterday that producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours. I wonder if Mr Blair is taking note?

Image author: Marcos Brindicci/Reuters

Seems to me political figures these days just don’t know what’s best for the environment (or themselves and their public image for that matter). First Gordon Brown, and now another figure who’s popped up in the media for his ‘championing’ of environment issues, is ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Yes, he’s still around, but there’s a slight problem with what he’s garbling on about. In a Q&A session with The Independent readers, he admits that eating meat produces four times as many greenhouse gas emissions as the airline industry (and about forty percent more than all cars, lorries, and other forms of transport combined), but seems too addicted to his chicken dinners to be able to see reality.

Anyway, it went a little something like this:

Blair: “This is why I have called for G8 leaders to support efforts to reduce forest destruction and degradation … Minimising emissions from agricultural sources will be an important part of efforts to limit climate change.

Reader: “Will you (therefore) go vegetarian and lead by example?”

Blair replied: “This does not mean the world has to give up meat.”

Oh. Come. On! Tony, we know you can do better than that, all you need is a bit of guidance.

So we sent him a letter today asking him to go vegetarian. Among other things, it said:

“Combating deforestation is a fine goal, but unless we tackle the root of the problem – which isn’t razing trees but raising billions of animals for food – we won’t make a dent in this serious and deadly problem. Won’t you please consider adopting a vegetarian diet and promoting it as the most effective thing anyone can do to fight against global warming?”

Image: Guardian / CC

Benjamin Zephaniah is one funky man. He’s a rasta poet and so much more, especially when it comes to helping PETA beat animal cruelty around the world.

Today is World Environment Day, and our main man Benjamin has penned a great piece on meat-eating environmentalism for Comment is Free at The Guardian website. Check it out, and add to the debate that’s raging over the meat industry’s consequences on the environment.

Image: VeganBrum / CC

We all know that Al Gore wants to save the environment – right? Well I’m not so sure actually.

Is he vegetarian? No.

Is he at least thinking about it? It doesn’t seem that way.

One thing we do all know, is that the meat industry is killing this planet. So the best way to do something about is to, you know, not eat meat.

Check out this great comment-piece by PETA US’ Bruce Friedrich in the Huffington Post.

Image: Business Week / CC

Not only is eating animal products a massive waste of food (and lives), but the news that England and Wales are throwing away a ’staggering’ amount of food is disconcerting, to say the least. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 3.6million tonnes of food each year are sent to the rubbish tip, which equals a whole lotta food and mega bucks. £10.2billion to be precise.

What gets me, is that 18 percent of this ‘waste’ is meat and fish, with 5,500 whole chickens disposed of every day. Are you kidding?! That’s 5,500 lives destroyed for no reason (not that there was a reason in the first place of course). Cows enslaved in a life of dairy production also fare poorly, with 1.3million unopened pots of yogurt abandoned every day.

But we can all do better on this front. Yes even vegans, as lovely and virtuous as we are. If we’re honest, I’m sure we’d see just how much we needlessly waste. Now I’m not about to suggest you start digging mouldy potatoes and limp lettuce leaves out of the bin, but I guess we could have a think on this one…

It’s official – humans are wiping out animals at an epidemic rate. So say the headlines today (the Metro’s is best, see above), with figures published that will shock the entire nation. While human life has continued to boom, the decimation of the animal population is becoming more and more apparent.

Here are some figures, according to the Living Planet Index report, to get your head around:

In 35 years, the number of humans has grown from 4billion to 6.5billion.
Land-based species have declined by 25 percent.
Marine species by 28 percent.
Tropical land species by 55 percent.

The news comes after America put polar bears on the endangered species list due to global warming. And why do we have problems like this? I’ve said it once (well actually, probably more like a hundred times) and I’ll say it again – go vegetarian if you want to save these fuzzy white bears and the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s a win-win situation really!

Image: Tiamhdha / CC

Finally, people are starting to see sense. For the environment, Estonian farmers are being taxed on their cows’, erm, flatulence. Or to put it bluntly, farting and burping now comes at a price. This Russian news site quite rightly states, “A single cow produces on average 350 litres of methane and 1,500 litres of carbon dioxide per day.” Now other countries need to follow in Estonia’s footsteps, and then go that one step further – tax all meat.

Marina Silva, Brazil’s Environment Minister, has given up on the Amazon rainforest. She has admitted that she is losing the green battle in the war against economic factors presiding over the fate of “the lungs of the planet.” What a sad state of affairs. I mean, why should there even be a battle to save the habitat of one in ten of the world’s mammals and 15 per cent of its land-based plant species. The rainforest also holds more than half of the world’s fresh water and millions of trees that give the Amazon its amazing green glow, providing a vital part in keeping global warming at bay.

But what concerns us the most, as you’ll see in The Independent article on it, is the effect the meat industry has on the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation due to a demand for cattle grazing land, and the demand for livestock feed are decimating this beautiful slice of paradise.

So what will happen now? It’s up to us to help as well, ya know, and the best thing you can do right now to save the Amazon, is to go vegetarian. Stop fuelling the demand for animal flesh and we may just stand a chance of winning this battle. And hey, it’s World Vegetarian Week on Monday – poifect!

Image: Thewe / CC

The meat industry largely contributes to global warming and the environmental issues that we face today – fact. A new film called Meat the Truth delves deep into these topics and even stars Pamela Anderson and PETA US’ very own Matt Prescott! Well I say film, but it’s actually more of a documentary, but still sounds pretty good to me.

The world premiere of the English language version of Meat the Truth will be showing on Monday 19th May – that’s this Monday coming – at the Odeon West End Cinema in Leicester Square, London. It’s a bit of an early start at 10am but well worth it if you can get the time off, or convince your boss to organise a ‘team-building trip’. The good news is that it’s freeeee; all you need to do is email caroline@vegsoc.org with your name, number, address and telephone number by Friday 16th May to be placed on the guest list. There are a limited number of seats that are fast being taken, so getting typing…

I’ve been dying to get hold of the photos of this since I heard that the event was going to take place, and here they are - they really don’t disappoint! In a bid to prove just how effective vegetarianism is over other environmental factors - like car pollution - the Lettuce Ladies of America took to the petrol stations of Virginia (sorry, I should say ‘gas stations’) and gave out free ‘gas’, vegan sandwiches and Vegetarian Starter Kits. I should mention they were also rather scantily clad, wearing nothing but the famous lettuce Lady outfit that our Pam Anderson wore in a past ad. Lettuce Lady Colleen Higgins says, “In a time of rising gas prices and rising concern for the environment, we’re going the extra mile to help Americans fill up on vegan fuel for their tummies and gas for their tanks.”