A
 recent report on a 20-year study commissioned by the Queensland 
government has revealed that 91% of all tree clearing has been done for 
livestock grazing. Leading the research team was Mr. Gerald Bisshop, 
retired principal scientist of the Queensland Department of Environment 
and Resources Management, and our Association member. 
The 
study’s data collection through satellite imagery and field research has
 yielded a picture of forest devastation in which trees were torn from a
 vast 270-square-kilometer area in a state that once boasted the largest
 forested region in the country.
Gerald
 Bisshop – Retired principal scientist – Queensland Department of 
Environment and Resources Management, Australia, Vegan, Our Association 
member (M): None of these trees have been used for timber, it’s 
purely for grazing livestock. They might use the bulldozers to break 
them and burn them in a pile. 
Or they might inject the trees with 
poison, they call that stem injection, to kill the trees, or they might 
use aerial poison to poison the trees from an aircraft. All of these 
kill the trees so that grass can grow to feed the livestock.
VOICE:
 A new paper by Mr. Bisshop includes a comprehensive evaluation of 
environmental risks across all of Australia, finding that livestock 
raising was the major factor in every area of impact.
Gerald Bisshop (M):
 We looked at what was driving deforestation; what was driving loss of 
biodiversity; what was driving soil degradation; what was driving soil 
loss in Australia; what was driving water quality loss in Australia and 
we found that there is a common cause. The common cause is land clearing
 for raising livestock.
VOICE: According to Mr. Bisshop, in 
Queensland, despite local tree planting efforts, 100 trees continue to 
be cleared for every tree planted. Thus, the solution to many of the 
environmental problems, as well as global warming, would be to stop 
clearing the land for livestock.
Gerald Bisshop (M):
 The re-growth in Queensland would quickly reverse the tree clearing. In
 other words, if the trees aren’t re-cleared then nature bounces back 
very quickly. So, we would see not only the emissions from the tree 
clearing stop, but we would see a reversal of that because the growing 
trees take up more carbon dioxide themselves.
VOICE: Our 
appreciation Mr. Bisshop and Queensland state for informing of this 
alarming link from deforestation to livestock raising. May governments 
and co-citizens quickly opt for the alternative of vegan food production
 and consumption to protect our Earth.
In an August 2009 
videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai emphasized as in 
previous times the need to safeguard the planet’s trees from clearing 
for livestock-related activities, especially to help stop global 
warming. 
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
 Forests also play a tremendous role in absorbing CO2. For example, the 
forests in the Pacific Northwest region of the US are able to absorb 
half of all the emissions of the state of Oregon, USA. 
So we 
should protect our forests as well, especially from clearing for cattle 
grazing and for animal feed growing, because these activities even add 
back many times more greenhouse gases. 
Most of the deforestation in 
our world is due to animal raising, taking up a staggering one-third of 
the entire land area on the globe! 
So to be veg is a way to not 
only eliminate significant emissions, but to absorb even more carbon 
from the atmosphere.It is a true solution, yes, and it is the most 
effective way to save the planet.
http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/slats/report.htmlhttp://www.derm.qld.gov.au/forests/saleable_products/forest_industry.html