This is Isabella, a 6th grader. I went on change.org, hoping my humble school project, will reach a deeper meaning than a 4.0 on a rubric. After my science teacher assigned us human impacts to research,  I have been more open-minded on the impacts we subconsciously do. Our population used to be just 1.6 billion people in 1900. Now, more than 6 billion people have been born in these last 100 years. 

Now, our bad habits can play much more of a disastrous role than ever before. Eating meat is one of them. Us humans have been eating a lot of meat. It isn't just roast chicken on Sunday, or turkey on Christmas morning. Many of us are eating meat every meal of the day. Meat is important- it has many vitamins like riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin B6, niacin, and vitamin B12. However, meat has played a bigger role in our environment than ever before.

All livestock produce methane, a greenhouse gas, that is 21 times more than carbon dioxide, because of it’s “Global Warming Potential”. Not just cows produce methane, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc, and even humans produce methane. Not just cows. Also, cows and pigs have a greater understanding than dogs, so they know when they are about to get slaughtered. It is unethical, and bad for the environment. Cows are brought on to large trucks for long journeys. Since the trucks have to go slower, because cows can weigh 1,600 to 2,600 pounds, and the heavier the truck is, they are using up more fossil fuels, because of the unimaginable weight. 1 ton is 2,000 pounds, and many cows are crammed in a small space, so the trucks are often facing more than 50 tons of weight, for around 1,500 miles. As we all know, trucks use a lot of gasoline, and world wide, 39 million cows and calves are killed worldwide, which makes thousands of cows slaughtered a day. That means if each truck can carry around 50-100 cows, and thousands, around 500,000, are slaughtered a day, then you are looking at around 100,000 trucks releasing gasoline a day. Each truck is traveling around 1,500 miles. A P.T Cruiser has around 22 miles for one giant gallon of gasoline. You are looking at 68.18 gallons of gas for one P.T Cruiser, and if around 500,000 cows ( and by cows, I mean female and male cows) 100,000 trucks are producing this much. To make this matter a little clearer, this means 6818000 gallons of gasoline released in the air, in just America. An the 6818000 gallons are just for the way to the slaughter house, not the way back. 6818000 times 2 is around 13636000 gallons released per day. And that’s just for cows, I never put lambs, sheep, chickens, pigs, and etc, In the equation.

Every day, millions of cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals are murdered for their flesh! This is unethical, and bad for the enviroment. From what I heard, in places like China, pigs are treated like pets, the same way you might treat your dog or your cat. Pigs are intelligent animals, like your dog and cat. Imagine your dog or cat facing the horrible conditions, and then a brutal and painfull death like that pig. 

I'm not saying to not eat meat, or pledge vegan or vegetarian, but eat less meat.

Think of what your impact on this planet means to the world you share whit more than 7 billion other humans.