If gene-edited meat eases the climate crisis, then we must embrace it - New Scientist
If gene-edited meat eases the climate crisis, then we must embrace it | New Scientist
Jim West/Alamy
EATING meat is a major contributor to two of the greatest problems humanity faces: global warming and the loss of biodiversity. Farming is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, while the amount of land turned over to grow food for livestock leaves less space for wildlife.
This is why many studies have highlighted the massive environmental benefits there would be if only people ate less meat. A plant-based diet has a much lower footprint in terms of carbon emissions and land. What’s more, there are also ethical and health arguments for such a diet.
Yet global meat…
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.