EPA kicks off ‘Kick the Habit!’ campaign for Mother Earth

Some private organizations have come up with alternatives for consideration by entrepreneurs.

The "No Meat No Heat Union" comprised of more than 50 local groups urged the government to build a friendly environment for vegetarians as a way to tackle the problems.

The government should not just urge local citizens to save energy, while allowing big enterprises to waste energy, union spokesman Pan Han-shen, who is also the secretary-general of the Green Party Taiwan,

All the carbon-reducing efforts made by the people can be easily offset if the government approves the construction of a controversial steel plant by the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG).

The project is currently under the government's environmental impact assessment. If approved, the steel plant will generate up to 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions, an amount that will take 10 million people who need to eat only vegetables for one year to offset, Pan warned.

Cheng Hsiao-hsuan, CEO of the union's secretariat, suggested that FPG set up 20,000 to 30,000 sites all over Taiwan to provide vegetarian food at low prices to as many as 10 million people.

Vegetarian diet

Cheng said the FPG can also offer vegetarian diet courses to raise the public's awareness about environmental protection.

More than 1.2 million people in Taiwan have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by converting to vegetarian diet, which will reduce at least 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions in Taiwan each year.

Those who have signed to take more vegetarian foods include Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, EPA chief, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin, and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu

Pan said cows and goats produce large amounts of methane, one of the six greenhouse gases, during and after digestion.

Growing animal feed and animal processing and transportation all also contribute to global warming, Pan said.

Pan noted that 20 percent of the world's carbon emissions are created by the livestock industry, which is higher than the 15 percent to 18 percent produced by all the transportation vehicles in the world.

Pan said that if one person eats only vegetables for one day, an estimated 4.1 kilo of carbon emissions can be reduced.

If one person's vegetable diet persists for the whole year, an estimated 1.5 ton of carbon emissions can be cut, Pan noted.

In other words, the more than one million people who have signed up for the campaign can help decrease 1.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, Pan said.



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