A U.N.-backed report says humans must turn towards plant-basd diets to stop climate change, or die.
With global population expected to reach 9.1 billion people by 2050, western desire for meat and dairy products will be unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.
Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: “Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels.”
Also sounding the alarm is Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental specialist who co-chaired the panel.
“Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products – livestock now consumes much of the world’s crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides,” Weizsaecker said.
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