Skip that third helping of roast beef, save the planet and do your heart a favor at the same time.
That’s the advice of Alan our of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues who (47) the livestock industry’s potential to help the UK reduce its carbon emissions to half of 1990 levels by 2030, and the knock-on effect on the nation’s health.
They found that the industry could reduce its emissions, but only if the livestock the UK produces, and the meat the nation (48) , drops by 30 per cent. Farms must also optimize(最优化) their energy (49) by, for example, capturing carbon in animal waste.
The health pay-off would be (50) : 18,000 fewer people would die prematurely in the UK each year from heart attceks--a(n) (51) of 17 per cent--as they would eat less of the fats found in meat.
The effect would not be limited to rich nations. The team found that Brazil could (52) the same health benefits. "We’re not saying go vegetarian, we’re saying reduce how much livestock produce you consume," says our. The savings could be (53) higher if reduced death rates from cancer and obesity had been included,he adds.
Agronomist(农艺学家) Kenneth Cassman of the University of Nebraska warns that cutting production in one region can (54) it elsewhere, causing a rise in global emissions. "Reducing production of livestock products in a developed country like the UK does little to influence global (55) in production and consumption where most of the increase in demand between now and 2050 will come from (56) countries," he says.