people are becoming more and more materialistic hence would be willing to forsake the environment for the consumption of products that are actually detrimental to the environment

People enjoy consuming meat and dairy and it is an essential part of every single one of our meals. However, consuming such food products actually is detrimental to the environment.

1 Factory farms produce massive amounts of dust and other contamination that pollutes our air. A study in Texas found that animal feedlots in the state produce more than 14 million pounds of particulate dust every year and that the dust 'contains biologically active organisms such as bacteria, mold, and fungi from the feces and the feed.'

2 According to the nonprofit group Greenpeace, all the wild animals and trees in more than 2.9 million acres of rainforest were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season in order to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in factory farms.

3 According to a 2006 UN report, the livestock sector causes more greenhouse gases worldwide than the entire transportation sector.

4 Nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent as a global warming gas than carbon dioxide. According to the U.N., the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for a staggering 65 percent of worldwide nitrous oxide emissions.

5 According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the run-off from factory farms pollutes our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. The EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.

6 It takes 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat. One average meat eater could consume that pound of meat during a meal, while 16 people could have been fed on the grain it takes to produce that pound of meat.

7 The meat industry causes more water pollution in the US than all other industries combined because the animals raised for food produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human population--86,000 lbs per second. A typical pig factory farm generates a quantity of raw waste equal to that of a city of 12,000 people.

8 Every 2 seconds, a child starves to death somewhere in the world. Countries such as Ethiopia and some Central American countries use their farmland to supply the United States with cheap burgers instead of growing healthful grain foods for their own starving people.

9 The livestock population of the US consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than 5 times its human population. 90% of all corn and 80% of all grains and beans grown in the US are used to feed livestock animals.

10. 75 percent of U.S. topsoil has been lost to date, 85 percent of that loss is due to livestock rearing.

In our consumerist world, many large corporations all aim for profit maximization. However, many environmentally friendly products, "green products" are in fact more expensive to produce compared to non-environmentally friendly products. This is because green products require higher technology in production and more research and development invested into the product. Therefore corporations would chose not to produce green products, in order to keep cost of productions low.For example, a green detergent, Seventh generation comes in at $0.14 per fluid ounce. However all non-green detergent, such as 2X Concentrated Laundry Detergent costs around only $0.09 fluid per ounce. Since most consumers would purchase the cheaper products, companies feel that they are losing out on the competition if they were to produce green products, continuing to produce products with toxic substances and pollutants, worsening the environments condition.

Another disincentive for companies to produce green products is reducing the pollutants in by-products, companies incur additional cost, and the costs is not low. Therefore corporations would have little incentive to go green.

consumers are more self-centered in today's world so they are more concerned over focusing on their social status and they do not think about the consequences of throwing away old items in favour of newer products. they choose to ignore the fact that other people are suffering because of their actions

developing countries are focused on their development and they do not have the technology and the budget to invest in R&D;for environmentally friendly production methods. on the other hand, developed countries are profit maximsing and they do not wish to invest in more money just to innovate green products as they usually have a higher production cost than normal products.

eg: the kyoto protocol requiring at least 55 parties to ratify the agreement and for the total of those parties emissions to be at least 55% of global production of greenhouse gases

169 countries have ratified the agreement. Of the signatories, only 2 refused to ratify Kyoto up until December of 2007 - Australia and the USA

Claussen spent the next five years working as the lead U.S. climate negotiator to convert the Rio framework into a treaty with legally binding greenhouse gas targets. She says the major obstacle to international agreement quickly became clear – economic interests, especially in the developing nations like China, India, and Brazil.