Humanity was recently served with yet another reminder that our appetite for flesh is rapidly destroying the environment. This reminder arrived in the form of a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned that it will be impossible to keep global temperatures at safe levels without a transformation in our eating and land management patterns.
In a nutshell, if we want to save the planet, we need to make an easy choice: to go vegan.
Scientists stress the need for more sustainable management of land so that much less carbon is released. Sure, but what does more sustainable land management look like? According to the IPCC, it involves "consumption of healthy and sustainable diets, such as those based on coarse grains, pulses and vegetables, and nuts and seeds." Sounds just like what vegans eat every day.
The BBC reports that the combination of agriculture and forestry accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. Raising animals for food contributes to climate change through the methane gas that the animals produce and via deforestation caused by clearing land in order to feed them. Going vegan can prevent further deforestation, reduce emissions of carbon and methane, and stop a climate catastrophe.
It sounds simple, so why isn't it happening?
Governments around the world are addicted to animal flesh and are using a disproportionate amount of our land to support this habit. For example, 80% of the agricultural land in the United States is used to raise animals for food or grow grain to feed them, and the government subsidizes these practices to the tune of nearly $24 billion each year.
Brazilian government data from July show that the Amazon is facing a tipping point from which it will not be able to recover. In July alone, more than 500 square miles of Amazon forest were logged, an area larger than Los Angeles, in pursuit of razed land for cattle ranching. If deforestation continues at this rate, the Amazon will become a savannah, which would destroy its capacity to process carbon.
Imagine if we stopped clearing land for cows and if the grain, corn and soybeans that are grown annually and used as animal feed were instead eaten directly by humans. You know who would be very pleased to stop being the intermediary in this climate-destroying diet? The 9 billion chickens and 29 million cows who are killed for their flesh every year in the United States alone, after living short and exceedingly painful lives.
Quirin Schiermeier of Nature notes that governments from around the world will be considering the IPCC's report in September at a UN climate summit in New York, followed by more climate talks in December in Chile. But based on prior experience, it's hard to feel too optimistic about these summits. So, what is the environmentally conscious consumer to do?
In the absence of any leadership by our politicians, we can each decide for ourselves to support the planet with our consumer dollars. The next time you visit the grocery store, reject the flesh, and instead choose to eat nutritious beans, grains, fruits, vegetables, tofu, nuts, seeds and other animal-friendly fare. The science speaks for itself. It's time to go vegan and save the Earth.
