Got Beef? Here’s What Your Hamburger Is Doing To The Climate

Published in Forbes

To the omnivores out there: If push came to shove, could you quit eating steak?

The ethics of killing animals for their meat have been debated for centuries. But in recent years, the looming specter of climate change has given meat eaters an additional dilemma to consider: cattle and dairy farming, climate scientists have warned, is unsustainable, generating high levels of greenhouse gases at every stage of the production process. For many vegetarians and vegans, the climate factor has provided yet another powerful argument for leaving meat behind.

At the sharp end of the wedge, cross-boundary bodies like the Igarapé Institute, with the cooperation of Interpol and NGOs, track environmental crimes in the Amazon basin, with a view to bringing legal cases against those responsible. But as far as prosecuting environmental crimes is concerned, campaigners and legal groups can count on little in the way of regional cooperation when it comes to bringing the culprits to justice.

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