More than 1 million people have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by temporarily becoming vegetarian, which would reduce the nation’s carbon emissions by at least 1.5 million tonnes annually, a green group said yesterday.
The announcement came after some 1.2 million people — including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) — signed on to become vegetarians during an anti-global warming drive held by the Union of NoMeatNoHeat between April 22 and Monday.
The union of more than 50 local groups promotes vegetarianism and is urging the government to build a “vegetarian-friendly” environment.
Union spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲), who is also the secretary-general of the Green Party Taiwan, said cows and goats produce large amounts of methane, one of the six greenhouse gases, during and after digestion.
The feeding, processing and transporting of animals also contributes to global warming, Pan said.
Pan said that 20 percent of the world’s carbon emissions are created by the livestock industry, which is more than the 15 percent to 18 percent produced by all the vehicles in the world.
Pan said that if one person eats only vegetables for one day, an estimated 4.1kg of carbon emissions can be avoided.
If one persists for a whole year, an estimated 1.5 tonnes of carbon emissions can be averted, Pan said. In other words, the more than 1 million people who have signed up for the campaign can help cut carbon emissions by 1.5 million tonnes annually.
Adopting a vegetarian diet cuts carbon emissions more effectively than removing one’s suit jacket, Pan said, referring to a government effort to encourage civil servants to wear less clothing as part of its eco-friendliness plan.
For instance, he said, if people in air-conditioned rooms all take off their suit jackets and raise the air conditioner setting 1°C, 300 million kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved in one summer.
That is equivalent to a reduction of 207,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, while 1 million people eating vegetarian can cut 375,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in one summer, Pan said.
Nevertheless, Pan said that these carbon-reducing efforts would be easily negated if the government approved the construction of a controversial Formosa Plastics Group steel plant.
The project is undergoing an environmental impact assessment and if approved, the steel plant would generate up to 15 million tonnes of carbon, Pan said.
The government should not urge local citizens to save energy while allowing big enterprises to waste energy, Pan said.
Cheng Hsiao-hsuan (鄭秀娟), CEO of the Union’s secretariat, suggested that Formosa Plastics Group set up 20,000 to 30,000 sites nationwide to provide vegetarian food at low prices to 10 million people.
Cheng said Formosa Plastics Group could also offer vegetarian diet courses to raise public awareness about environmental protection.
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