The upsurge in meat consumption globally is having dramatic affects on the global environment. Scientists are now arguing that reducing, or removing meat eating, from one's diet is the best way to help reduce the affects of climate change on the planet. Researchers at Britain's University of Exeter reported that a rapidly rising population and a growing demand for meat is a “bad combination” when it comes to climate change. They say lifestyle changes, recycling plant material and wasting less food can help prevent what they have dubbed an ecological disaster. “With a growing human population that's almost certainly going to be around the 9 and a half billion mark in the middle of this century – and with the trends towards on average eating more meat – then the real danger that we have is we're going to almost literally run out of land for food production and natural ecosystems in particular," said Professor Tim Lenton, co-author of the research. He said the challenge is to continually improve land use efficiency. “If we weren't making any technological improvements in the efficiency of farming and food production, and especially meat production, then we calculated that the amount of land we'd need to meet the food demand in 2050 could be something like 9 billion hectares or nearly 90 percent of the productive land of the planet and nearly twice what we farm on and have pasture on today," he said. It is not only Western and wealthy countries that are the main culprits. The study points to India and China's growing appetite for meat as another tipping point. “The trend heading if you like in a Western direction is perhaps understandable for those of us already enjoying quite a bit of meat in our diets. It is putting extra pressure on the planet and on the land surface. But the good side of it is that the increasing demands so far for meat from the emerging economies is being met largely by the most efficient forms of meat. That is eating pork and chicken rather than eating beef," said Lenton.
