Vegetarianism

With the increases in the environmental pollution, the issue “environmental protection” has become an important subject for everybody. Regardless of some people not caring about this topic, there are still a lot of people worrying about our environment and willing to take time to do something to protect our environment.

I started to be interested in vegetarianism when there were more and more people becoming vegetarians. In the beginning, I didn’t know why they wanted to be vegetarians or vegans. However, after global warming’s effects become more and more severe, I gradually understood that those people just would like to have a better life and vegetarianism is one of the good ways that can help resolve our environmental pollution problems. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” “If we want to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet, we are going to have to eat less meat and dairy” (Western Daily Press, 2007, para. 33). However, there is a disagreement about whether vegetarianism is really a good way and if it is easy for people to carry out. Some people may think that encouraging people to eat vegetables can help our environment be restored. Sue Green said, as long as people become vegetarians just one day, this could lead to a significant influence for the environment and decrease ten times the amount of greenhouse emissions (Green, 2007). Others may have a negative attitude. They mention that not only does going vegetarian have its difficulty to carry out, but also it cannot actually reduce wastes and resources. Hence, now, I plan to focus on vegetarianism. First, vegetarianism is an easy way for people to carry out the environmental protection. Second, going vegetarian can greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions. Third, going vegetarian is very healthy. Finally, vegetarianism helps people preserve and save more resources.

First of all, because going vegetarian is not only easy but also convenient, everybody can do it. What’s more, they are able to take this way into practice at home. Donnelly said, “you can grow sprouts beside the kitchen sink and enjoy organic food that's high in vitamins and minerals, that's cheap and easy to grow” (2009, para. 20). Therefore, even if not having enough time to do something for the environment, people can still bring the ideas into their life every day. It’s really simple and does not take much time. For example, some people might care about the environment and indeed want to do something for the sick earth like doing recycling, but they often complained that they don’t have enough time to do it. However, whether you believe it or not, going vegetarian doesn’t take too much time. If people are able to change their diet, it really helps the earth a lot. Maybe we are not like some people who dedicated themselves to the environmental protection such as doing recycling in the recycling plant, but we also reach the same purpose---save the world.

Nowadays, most people have already changed their diets and some of them go so far as to devote themselves to encouraging other people to go into this way. Compared with the general public who still eat meat and dairy for their meal every day, maybe they are just those people who really care about the environment. I say in this way because although many people know how important it is for them to be concerned about the environmental problem, few of them are willing to take action to implement it. As Kilpatrick said, “We are all part of the problem, so we should all be part of the solution” (2008, para. 3). Therefore, regardless of knowing how important it is that we protect the environment, the most important is that we should actually carry out and decrease the pollution. That’s why I mention vegetarianism. It is really pretty simple and helpful. In short, going vegetarian is very easy and everybody can do it.

In addition, vegetarianism can help people decrease a large amount of wastes and pollution. For instance, we create great emissions from our daily life, such as the vehicles we used and our food like meat. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” the greenhouse emissions from the livestock sector account for 18 percent of all greenhouse emissions in the world (Western Daily Press, 2007, para. 4-5). Most importantly, the demand from livestock is still rising constantly. This would lead to a terrible result. The emissions increase continuously and the earth cannot afford to consume all emissions. Maybe 10 years later, the greenhouse emissions would be fill up our atmosphere. If it happened, how could we survive? The answer is pretty obvious. Therefore, how to slow down the greenhouse emissions becomes an important topic for us.

Moreover, animal protein also produces more greenhouse emissions than plant protein does. Sue Green quoted Dr. Tavakkoli as saying, “animal agriculture accounted for one fifth of global carbon emissions; animals accounted for 65 percent of the world’s nitrous oxide emissions” (2007, para. 9). Therefore, if everyone goes vegetarian, we can easily slow down the rate of all emissions and the ozone loss problem can be easily controlled. According to “Healthy breakfast can lead to a sicker planet”, “the average American could lower his or her emissions by between 252kg and 400kg, simply by having one red-meat-free day a week” (The New Zealand Herald, 2008, para. 5). In a word, going vegetarianism can protect the environment from being destroyed and polluted, because the livestock sector is responsible for a large amount of greenhouse emissions.

Third, going vegetarian is much healthier for people and can help decrease some harmful sources. For instance, eating meat too much will produce both high calories and fats for people’s health and then cause severe diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Also, all these diseases are ranked as top five of all ailments. This is also why we need to go vegetarian. If we go vegetarian, we can decrease the risk of having those diseases. For example, more and more people become vegetarians, because they are aware of many benefits from this way. Even many families made their children go vegetarian when they were very young. Green mentioned that Ms. Owers became vegetarian meat 23 years ago, and one of her children, 10, only eat very little meat in school but he didn’t feel bad (Green, 2007).

Moreover, not only does eating less meat and dairy give you few chances of contracting severe diseases, but also vegetables and fruits have already provided sufficient daily needs and nutrition for people. For example, people eating vegetables can prevent osteoporosis. This is because vegetables contain lots of vitamin C and vitamin C can accumulate in our body to assimilate the calcium and then keep our bones from being destroyed. It is good for many elderly women and some people with osteoporosis. Besides, people who choose to eat more vegetables and less meat would easily keep an appropriate weight. Because vegetables would make our stomach have a good digestion, then we will have fewer harmful materials accumulated in our bodies. It is also good for our health. In short, vegetarianism can offer people a much healthier life.

 Some people may disagree with vegetarianism. Opponents of vegetarians said that vegetarianism cannot actually reduce wastes and pollution since plant protein can produce greenhouse emissions as well. However, Sue Green said, “it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of beef and just 1,500 to produce a loaf of bread” (2007, para. 7). If more and more people go vegetarian, there are fewer and fewer resources wasted. For example, each year, Americans consume many tons of meat and dairy and their consumption is top of the world. If they are willing to eat less meat and dairy every day, more resources and energy can be saved. If we save and preserve more resources, we can have a sustainable environment. It will be a benefit not only for us ourselves but also for our offspring.

On the contrary, when people eat substantial meat and dairy, more animals will be raised and then much energy like fresh water and fertile soils needs to be put in the processing of meat and diary. As we know, generally, producing meat would waste more resources than producing plants because raising animals requires more lands and energy and then produces more wastes and pollution. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” “70 percent of agriculture land – one third of the entire land surface of the planet – is used to raise livestock” (2007, para. 15). Furthermore, eating plants can reduce the demand for a huge amount of processing and animal resources. Similarly, Shepard said, “Animals require space and feed - an acre (0.4ha) of arable crops can feed 20 times as many people as an acre dedicated to cows” (2008, para. 3). In a word, vegetarianism can really help people reduce the use of the resources and preserve and save more resources.

In conclusion, going vegetarian is a much easier and simpler way and people can take little time to do it. In addition, vegetarianism can reduce a great amount of pollution from the livestock sector because the livestock really produces great greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, going vegetarian can provide a healthy and comfortable lifestyle for people and keep them from suffering severe diseases. Finally, vegetarianism can not only help people save and preserve more resources, and energy but also can offer a sustainable life for people and animals. Based on the reasons that I just mentioned, I totally believe that vegetarianism is really a feasible way for people to carry out and then reduce wastes and pollution.

Reference

Donnelly, F. (2009, April 14). How to have a sustainable diet, The Courier Mail. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from LexisNexis Database

Green, S. (2007, September 29). It’s easy being green, The Dominion Post. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database

Kilpatrick, J. (2008, June 19). Fighting climate change - one footprint at a time, The Gazette. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

Shepard, A. (2008, February 9). A huge hoof-print, The Times. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

The New Zealand Herald. (2008, September 18). Healthy breakfast can lead to a sicker planet. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

Western Daily Press. (2007, June 16). Can vegetarian save the world? Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

Why not use Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a useful website like Google searches that can make everybody use and share. With the development of the technology, more and more people like to use the Wikipedia to find their articles and clarify their questions. Meredith Byers said, “Approximately 38 million people visited the English language version of the sites in December 2006. Wikipedia is also easy to find; it frequently appears at the top many Google searches and access is completely free” (2009, para. 1). However, there is a disagreement about whether the contents in Wikipedia are worthwhile to trust and if their information is valuable. Some people may agree that Wikipedia is a useful website because it really helps many people much more quickly and easily to find articles that they want and need. Other people may think that Wikipedia is not worthy since there is a lot of incorrect information in it. Besides, some information still isn’t verified. Jason Wolverton said that information in Wikipedia is edited by anyone and every user can modify and update these article with anonymous reign and, therefore, this leads to a controversial problem (Wolverton, 2007). As far as I am concerned, I think that Wikipedia is worthwhile to use because it still has many advantages and it is really helpful as well. In the following, I plan to discuss why Wikipedia is useful.

First of all, Wikipedia makes a lot of resources easy to find. If people would like to try to understand one topic, they can just search the Wikipedia website and can readily find their answers. For example, nowadays, many young people like to use Wikipedia to clarify their questions. Furthermore, many people like professors and students can spend less time searching articles and take much time just to focus on their work. John Gapper said that It found that Americans from 25 to 34 classify Wikipedia website as the second source for business information and the first source is business magazine (Grapper, 2008). In a word, Wikipedia is a convenient search website.

In addition, information in Wikipedia has already been classified. When searching one topic from Wikipedia, people can get more information and resources related to this topic. For instance, when searching what ragtime is, I can get more background information such as how ragtime developed and how it influences Jazz. In short, people can easily gain information from Wikipedia since information in Wikipedia has been already organized and classified.

Third, Wikipedia is a big website, which functions as a library. In Wikipedia, all kinds of resources and terms can be found and searched. Since Wikipedia is edited by anyone, sometimes even some contemporary events or popular words are also included. For example, once I tried to find a famous baseball player. I just keyed the player’s name into Wikipedia and immediately it a lot of information appeared related to the player, including his personal information and how long ago he entered the Baseball Federal. On the contrary, I cannot find the same information in the library. In a word, Wikipedia provides people all kinds of related information of the contemporary events and famous figures.

Some people may argue that some information in Wikipedia may not be verified and still have some mistakes. However, like the knowledge pool, Wikipedia also has the same function. People can keep and preserve the precious process for the following people to clarify those questions that they are still skeptical about. Moreover, with more and more people verifying and with more people discussing, the answers to those question are getting close to truth. In short, Wikipedia provides a convenient way for people to discuss and accumulate a lot of knowledge.

In conclusion, Wikipedia is convenient and makes people more effective. Furthermore, information in Wikipedia is classified and organized. Moreover, Wikipedia includes all kinds of information such as contemporary events and famous figures. Finally, Wikipedia functions as a knowledge pool. Therefore, I deeply believe that Wikipedia is a good valuable search website.

References

Byers, M. (2007, March 8). Controversy over use of Wikipedia in academic papers arrives at Smith, Sophian, Smith College. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://tinyurl.com/2dyt65.

Gapper, J. (2008, Jan 23). Wikipedia is popular but scary. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://blogs.ft.com/gapperblog/2008/01/wikpedia-is-pohtmal.

Wolverton, J. (2007, Jan 22). Wikipedia Wisdom, Valley Vanguard. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://www.svsu.edu/clubs/vanguard/stories/1141.

The Advantages of Vegetarian

The Advantages of Vegetarian

      According to the passage, “It’s easy being green,” the author with his family becomes vegetarian since they have some reasons for these. First, they have highly ethics and compassion for the animals. In the past, fewer people had more compassion toward animals, but today more and more people start to focus on these ethical issues. For them, killing the animals is a very cruel behavior. Next, going vegetarian can help the environment and the climate a lot. The author said, “according to a report from the United States, it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of beef, and just 1500 to produce a loaf of bread; while one hectare of land can produce enough potatoes for 20 people for a year, it produces enough beef for just one person.” If all people become vegetarian, people can save more resources for a better sustainable life. A New Zealand Vegetarian Society makes World Vegetarian Day on Monday. Although going vegetarian is only once a week, greenhouse gas emission can be decreased greatly.

Some people may think that becoming vegetarian will help the environment a lot, while other people have a negative attitude. As far as I am concerned, I deeply believe that vegetarianism is a good way for people to save the earth and protect the earth from damaging, because, first, going vegetarian can help people avoid wasting a lot of garbage on earth and save more resources for their offspring; second, eating meat or dairy food may accelerate the potentially renewable resources like plants or lands to be decimated; and third, people can decrease the rate of greenhouse emission.

      First of all, it is helpful for people to go vegetarian because they can save and preserve more resources on earth. For example, producing a kilogram of meat would waste 10 times more resources than producing a loaf of bread. Therefore, if people go vegetarian, they can save more resources for their descendents. Furthermore, planting a tree or natural plant is even easier and would not waste too many resources to make the meat production.

      In addition, people would speed to pollute and destroy the environment when the rate of using the potentially renewable resources is faster than the rate of replanting them. For instance, much energy like fresh water and fertile soils needs to be put in the process of producing meat. Moreover, the rate of using the renewable resources is too fast and potentially renewable resources, like land, need time to recover their original situation. If people use land too often, the land will become infertile and can not be used again. Hence, if people would like to live in a better sustainable life, it is necessary to eat meat or dairy less.

      Last but not least, when people are willing to become vegetarians, it is possible to decrease the amount of greenhouse emissions. For example, let us compare the plant protein with the animal protein. While plant protein produces 10 tons of greenhouse emissions, animal protein will set off 100 tons. Therefore, becoming vegetarian just for a one day can make the planet produce less pollution. Most importantly, they can protect the ozone layer from getting worse.

      In conclusion, going vegetarian can help people save more resources. Furthermore, not only can going vegetarian help people keep more resources but also people can live in a better sustainable life. Finally, people can decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the reasons stated above, I think that going vegetarian will have a lot of advantages for the planet.

Reference:

Green, S. (2007, September 29) It’s easy being green. The Dominion Post. Retrieved May 27,2009, from LexisNexis database

Vegetarian Is A Good Way to Save The World

           According to the reading, ”can vegetarians save the world,” the author thinks people should reduce the amount of meat and dairy and become vegetarian in order to protect the planet from being destroyed. The author provides three reasons to support his opinion. First, the author said that demand for meat is rising, the global livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and it produces too many wastes. Second, since the global livestock sector was one of the most serious environmental problems, the author believes that if people changed their diets and reduced the amount of meat and dairy, they would have a positive impact on the planet. Third, not only do environmentalists emphasize this topic, but also the government and authorities are going to act and can stop helping this industry.

In the reading, some people may agree with the statement that vegetarian can save the world while other people disagree. Since the habits of diet for people from different countries are different, sometimes changing the diet may be not easy to carry out. As far as I am concerned, I agree that vegetarians can save the world because: first, the agricultural run-off from animal wastes pollutes the environment like oceans and rivers; second, the population in the world continues to increase. Changing people’s diets will have a significant and positive influence on the environment; and third, the government or authority in many countries would be together to take actions and make some rules to help people change their diets.

First of all, the author said that the global livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and that demand for meat is rising constantly. Besides, the methane produced by the 1.5 million cows and 1.7 billion sheep amounts to 37 percent of anthropogenic methane gas emissions. Furthermore, the meat production was doing as much damage to the environment as cars and housing since the energy and land are needed to rear animals. Therefore, people have to decrease the amount of feeding the livestock. For example, if more people become vegetarian, the pollution or waste from the livestock will become less. The more vegetarians there are, the less waste or garbage people will create. In short, vegetarians can help people to save the planet.

In addition, as we know, the population in the world is constantly rising. If people can control their population or change their diets, people will have a positive impact on the environment, but it is difficult to control the population so we can encourage people to change their diets first. For instance, vegetables are healthier than meat. When changing their diet, people can not only have a good body but also they can have a good influence on the planet. Hence, it will be easier for people to accept the change about their diet. In a word, vegetarianism is a good way to save the planet.

Last but not least, not only should the public take the vegetarian diets into practice but also the government and the authorities should manage to find a way to help people change their diets. Take Europe as an example. In Europe, according to the author, the government subsidizes 30 billion euros into the meat and dairy industries and 40 percent of wheat is eaten by animals. Therefore, government should stop subsidizing the industry. If all things are done, people will be able to easily reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, lacking the subsidy from the government, people will have to change their diets due to the rising cost. In short, by the effort of the government and the public, the greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced.

In conclusion, reducing the amount of meat is needed. Furthermore, changing people’s diets will cause a good influence on the environment. Finally, by the effort of the government and authority, people will be gently pushed to become vegetarian. Based on the reasons stated above, I agree with the statement that vegetarian can save the world.

Reference:

Newspaper

Western Daily Press (2007, June 16) Can vegetarians save the world? Retrieved May 22, 2009, from LexisNexis database

The way to decrease the pollution

        Accounting to Stephen Leahy in “Climate Change: Chemical LobbyWeakening Ozone Treaty,” the Montreal Protocol was an action taken by 24 countries in order to protect the environment from being destroyed further. Its purpose was to keep the equivalent of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Also, with the protocol, the ultraviolet radiation maximum value is lower. Besides, emissions of ozone-damaging CFC refrigerants have been replaced with much less damaging chemicals-HCFCs and HFCs. However, HCHCs and HFCs also will do damage to the environment. Therefore, in 2008, more countries joined the multilateral action and decided to reduce emissions of ozone-damaging HCFCs. Asides from HCFCs, many countries also take action on decreasing emissions of HFCs. In short, the Montreal protocol is an example of decisive multilateral action on environment threats.

        In the reading, the author said the Montreal Protocol is a “decisive multilateral action on environmental threats” and it helps the environment a lot. As far as I am concerned, I agree with the statement that the Montreal Protocol is a decisive multilateral action on threats, but I don’t think that some evidence or some ideas in the reading are correct completely.

       First of all, the author said that without the protocol, UV maximum would be 30 in Washington. However, the author did not say how the value was measured. For example, Washington is a small place and it cannot represent all over the world. In a word, the evidence has some problems in it.

       Second, more countries cooperate to keep emissions of HCFCs declined, so they decided to trim 10 years and accelerate the phase-out of HCFCs from now until 2030. However, the way is not a good one to completely protect the earth from being polluted. The way is just to decrease the possibility of polluting the environment and cannot keep the earth completely unpolluted.  For instance, we should completely stop to use the HCFC rather than short the time of phasing out HCFCs. In the beginning, not using the HCFCs may be difficult, but we have to act in this way. In short, a good way to protect the environment is not to use the HCFC chemicals.

        Third, what the author said is that total emissions of chemicals have slowly declined since ozone-damaging CFC refrigerants were replaced with much less damaging chemicals. However, less damaging chemicals will still cause a problem to our surroundings. When using less damaging chemicals, we just slowly pollute the environment. We should find the better way to solve our problems such as, alternative materials or substances which will not do any damage to our environment.  In a word, replacing CFCs with other chemicals is wrong.

         In conclusion, the author did not say how the UV maximum value was measured. Furthermore, not only should we decrease the use of the HCFC chemicals but we should not use the HCFCs at all. Finally, we have to find other substances, but not chemicals, to replace the CFCs. Therefore, I disagree with some ideas in the reading.

Reference:

Leahy, S. (2008.September 16). Climate Change : Chemical Lobby Weakening Ozone Treaty, Inter press Service, Retrieved May 19, 2009, from http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=43888