I want to begin this post by saying I am about as far away from being a vegetarian as a person could possibly be. I briefly considered becoming a vegetarian when I was a teenager, because that's just the hippy thing to do, but I like shrimp and cheeseburgers too much. I also hate almost all vegetables. And besides, being a spoiled brat and refusing to eat the food you are given just means those tasty animals on your plate have suffered for nothing. That being said, there are environmental reasons for which we should all try to cut back on our meat consumption, especially beef.

Greenhouse gas emissions have risen to a record level in 2010. That's right; last year we have caused the highest carbon output in history. According to scientists, this drastic rise means that the goal of preventing a temperature rise of over 2 degrees Celsius (the threshold for "potentially dangerous climate change") is now nearly impossible.

Not all species can adapt in the city’s urban wilderness, and those that do are perhaps altered forever. Is this what we have to anticipate in the near future as the last few left over open spaces are reduced down to stamp-size plots? If we wish to keep a healthy, workable wild population of all the creatures found in the natural, unexploited environment, there have to be enough wild spaces to accommodate the broad range of biological diversity. To have the best of all worlds, there must be large protected areas where man and wildlife don't ever commingle.