Scientific American published the page of charts on the left.  Click the image to get a high-res version.  It explains how bad for the environment the production and consumption of meat really is.  According to the magazine, the annual beef diet of the average American emits as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as a car driven approximately 1,800 miles.

That’s very bad.  Here’s another statistic: According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.