That would probably involve burning the peat and releasing the carbon into the atmosphere, having the same effect as cutting down the trees.

In the Amazon alone, 80% of current destruction is driven by the cattle sector.

The rainforests are being cut down to feed the world meat.

Animal agriculture is also what is responsible for the mass extinctions of wildlife.

> “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. “It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” he said, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions."

The new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world. Loss of wild areas to agriculture is the leading cause of the current mass extinction of wildlife.