Veganism shouldn't be that big of a deal

GLOBAL WARMING/AIR POLLUTION: Animals directly contribute to global warming, and water and air pollution. Air pollution can also be the same as global warming, at least in this case. The main greenhouse gases are Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Tropospheric Ozone, CFC-12, HCFC-22, and Sulphur Hexafluoride. http://www.c2es.org... Methane in particular is emitted during coal, natural gas, and oil production and transportation. The emissions also come from livestock and other agriculture, and by the decay of waste in solid waste landfills. Nitrous oxide is also emitted during agriculture and industrial activities, as well as combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste. So, agriculture that raises food for the animals increases methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere; the livestock produces methane. Therefore, both of these things contribute to global warming. Manure is one of the largest contribution to greenhouse gases - have you ever been around a cow pasture? If you have you would know that there is air pollution within a large radius of any livestock. https://www.epa.gov... http://www.sustainabletable.org... WATER POLLUTION: As for water pollution, this is simple but juvenile: livestock poops. What happens to it? It's washed away by rain and into other bodies of water, and it causes various water borne diseases: cholera, diarrhea, jaundice, dysentery, and typhoid, for example. http://www.onegreenplanet.org... HUMAN OBESITY: Meat contributes to human obesity because (in America, at least) we feed our livestock antibiotics in order to make them larger and "healthier." Not only are we becoming immune to antibiotics in part due to this; but if antibiotics make animals fatter, what makes you think it doesn't do the same to us? The fact that meat has protein in it has no relation to health, as you can get protein from other sources. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... EROSION: Livestock causes erosion because when they live in one place, they eat the plants and trample the ground. Without the plants, the ground is more likely to be eroded by wind and water. Therefore, erosion deals with veganism in the fact that if we didn't eat them, there would be less erosion. https://mspoirier115.edublogs.org... ANIMALS KILL THEMSELVES: "Animals are going to kill themselves anyway" is an argument that makes no sense. We're talking about livestock in pastures and slaughterhouses, not predators in the Savannah. These prey animals are protected by us so we can eat them; I think we both know that cows don't eat each other, at least not naturally. FREE ANIMAL PASTURES V. SLAUGHTERHOUSES: You've misconstrued my words in regard to slaughterhouses: I believe that confining animals to the smallest possible area they can stand in, abusing them, and not killing them mercifully are crimes against nature. However, I know that slaughterhouses are built for efficiency and minimum space requirements. I was predicting that you would say that if they weren't confined, where would they go? The answer is that they would go to open pastures - and they would do more damage. However, the point I was making was that if we didn't eat the animals, they wouldn't be in slaughterhouses or pastures; therefore they wouldn't cause damage to the environment. FOOD CHAIN: I wouldn't say humans are the top of the food chain. The food chain is the natural order of who-eats-who. Note the word natural; without our tools and defenses, we only have our intellect. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors got eaten by predators regularly. It's also agreed upon in the scientific community that plants are at the top of the food chain because they produce their own food. Also, the food chain is a deceptive term; a more accurate description would be a food web, as every animal is connected in some way. Humans only define it as a food chain because of ego. HUMANS WON'T STOP: You are correct that factories won't stop killing livestock/people won't stop hunting unless EVERYONE decides to go vegan. Any logical person knows that this simply will not happen; and the people that are underweight need efficient protein sources. Unfortunately, animal meat is one of the most efficient source, since you can eat a small portion of meat as opposed to a large portion of cheese or seeds. Also, "slapping consistency into me" is a laughable idea, and the comment has no place in a debate.