News Releases

PETA Points Out That Climate Change, Water Pollution, Resource Depletion, and Land Erosion Are All Linked to Consumption of Meat and Dairy Products

For Immediate Release:

November 8, 2011

Shanghai -- Covered from head to toe in bright-green and blue bodypaint, three members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will hold a banner reading, "Save the Planet, Go Vegan," at Nanjing Walking Street on Wednesday to urge passersby to switch to a healthy, humane, and eco-friendly vegetarian diet:

Date:           Wednesday, November 9

Time:           12 noon sharp

Place:          Nanjing Road Walking Street, starting at the corner of Xizang Zhong Road, in front of Brilliance Shimao International Plaza and walking toward Henan nan Road

"The best thing that any of us can do for our health, for animals, and for the environment is to go vegetarian," says PETA campaigner Ashley Fruno, who will be in bodypaint for the event. "Whether it's climate change, the overuse of land resources, massive water and air pollution, or soil erosion, eating animals is wreaking havoc on the Earth."

The following points are examples of what scientists say about an animal-based diet's threat to the environment:

*A United Nations report concluded that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.

*University of Chicago researchers concluded that switching from a standard meat-based diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against climate change than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.

*A German study concluded that a meat-eater's diet is responsible for more than seven times as much greenhouse-gas emissions as a vegan's diet is.

*Waste, antibiotics, and pesticides from factory farms and slaughterhouses contaminate water sources. Farmed animals produce 13 billion metric tons of excrement a year--48 times as much as the world's human population produces.

*Satisfying the world's appetite for animal flesh requires fuel to produce fertilizer for the crops that are fed to animals, gas to run the trucks that take the animals to slaughter, electricity to freeze their carcasses, and much more. It takes more than 10 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein.

Many leading environmental organizations--including the Worldwatch Institute, the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Al Gore's Live Earth--recognize that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about any other human activity. For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.

#