Carbon Dioxide and Meat-free Meal Essay

Good night ladies and gentlemen.. To begin, let me sing you guys a song. â€Å"Save my world, save my world. Save my world, save my world.† I am very sure this song is not foreign to all of you. From all your faces, I know that you guys would be thinking â€Å"OMG! This song again?! She is going to talk about the environment-related topics. Definitely something about reduce travelling by cars, reuse the plastic bags or recycle the paper and glass etc.† Well, my speech is about protecting the environment but from an angle that you didn’t realize it. Have you wondered how many animals died every year? Nope. I am not talking about how many animals died because of global warming, I am talking about how many animals died because you ate them. No idea? Was it because you have never thought about it before? 60 billions of animals died every year to fill our stomach, more than 6 million animals died every hour. These figures did not include sea animals because they are measured in pounds. Imagine how many animals died as I am making this speech here. Human beings are not the only living things on earth, save these animals! Imagine how much resources are needed to produce these animals. GO GREEN, EAT VEGGIE! Eating less meat would help to save the environment through three factors, water, land and air. First, let us look at the factor: water. We used about 9000 litres of water everyday. Only five percent of them run through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home. The other 95 percent is hidden in the food we eat, products we buy, and services we rely on. Producing 1 pound of beef needs 2,500 gallons of water which means that producing half KG of beef needs more than 10,000 litre of water. Comparing with potato, it only requires 100 litres of water for half KG of potato. You may think that there are other ways of conserving water such as washing cars less often, bath less, or using low-flow toilets. But these methods are not as effective as eating less meat. We can help to save the environment by eating a meat-free meal once a week. And after one year, you can save more than 380,000 litres of water. Isn’t that amazing? Remember GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! Next, let us move on to the factor: land. Millions of acres of land are used to feed the animals which is equivalent to the size of 5 Singapore. Imagine the size of 5 Singapore is used to feed the animals. And many of these land used were once rainforest. We all know that clearing rainforest brought about countless negative impact to our environment such as soil erosion, lost of diversity. By choosing a meat-free meal once each week, you could save nearly 8,000 square feet of open space from being converted to farmland. GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! Lastly, it is the factor: air. As I have mentioned earlier, rainforest are cleared to provide the animals with space and food. This causes more carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere. And also, all living things breathe and â€Å"F-A-R-T†. Livestock release carbon dioxide when breathing and also methane when â€Å"F-A-R-T†. These gases are all greenhouse gases which would harm the environment. A single cow can produce 500 litres of methane a day. Imagine how much cows are there in a farm and how many days do they need to be old enough to be eaten? How much methane would be released? And again GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! I am not asking you guys to become a vegetarian but I am asking you guys to reduce the amount of meat in your meal. Having a meat-free meal once a week, I believe it is not too much to ask. Never underestimate the power of individual. Imagine if I collect 10 cent from each of you, a single 10 cent coin is almost worthless but if I collect 10 cent from 20 people, I would be able to afford a meal in school. Imagine if we eat a meal without meat once a week, there are billions of people in the world. How many animals do we save? GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! â€Å"Save my world, save my world. Save my world, save my world today!† Thank you!