The single greatest source of greenhouse gasses AND of polution in general is... (Xpost from enviro)

[Binkie The Clown]

... animal agriculture. Far greater than all the transportation sources, cars, trains, trucks, airplanes, in the whole world put together.

And, you, all by yourself, could conserve over 11,000 gallons of water per day by not eating meat.

But, of course, few people are willing to do something so drastic to save the planet. Yet they are willing to blame somebody else: The oil industry, the auto manufacturers, fracking (which releases a TINY fraction of the methane released by animal agriculture). Yet everybody talks about what the OTHER guy needs to do, without being willing to make the biggest contribution they could possibly make toward saving the planet. Change all your bulbs to compact fluorescent, switch to a hybrid car, turn down your thermostat, take shorter showers, plant your yard with drought-tolerant plants so you don't have to water them, recycle, compost your waste and use it in your home garden,... all wonderful things to do. But eat ONE Big Mac and you've wiped every good thing you did for an entire year in one selfish act of I-don't-give-a-damn-about-the-planet.

http://www.cowspiracy.com/ Watch it on Netflix instant.

(Standing by to have everyone tell me I'm wrong. Sorry. I'm not wrong. But it IS easier to blame the other guy, so that's what people will do.)

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but...

it's well known that feeding plants to animals to feed us adds an additional and unnecessary (but tasty) step to the process.

There have also been a few attempts to catch cow farts-- every ranch produces tons of methane.

My suggestion is not to preach- that rarely ends well- but to push more interesting and tastier vegetable offerings.

[Scootaloo]

2. It's a question of layers

We destroy forests to make way not just for the animals, but also the food we give them. Forests are very carbon-dense, they sequester a lot of the stuff away. when we tear them down, we burn most of the matter, and what's left rapidly rots. Both release carbon. We then replace that growrth with cereals, soya, and the like - none of which are particularly carbon-dense. we then feed this stuff to cattle and pigs, bot hof which are CO2 and methane factories (as are all animals, really). And we have immense numbers of these things. We then have toi power the apparatus to caretake for these animals, then kill them, then preserve them, then ship them, then keep preserving them, on and on down the line.

of course, we could take the cows out. Take them completely out. everyone goes vegan. What happens to global warming? it keeps on keeping on, because the cows are just one corner of the problem. Maybe as a single, individual cause they are very large. But as a part of the whole, they're ultimately negligible.

There is no one "magic button." Nothing is ever so simple.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Of course. And, as the population grows...

we cut down more forests for development and use more water. This is in addition to what we do for growing food.

Malthus had the numbers wrong, but he was on to the idea that there must be limits to growth.

[orwell]

4. I worked in a meat processing plant...

...that "cured" me.

[2naSalit]

5. ...this is old but still the case

http://cironline.org/reports/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. You're still pushing the problem off one level.

The single greatest source of greenhouse gasses AND of polution in general is...

Too many humans. Fewer humans = less meat consumption, less car pollution, less manufacturing pollution, etc, etc, right on down the line.