Give Up Meat, Save the Planet?

After being inspired by Earth Day, you could plant some flowers for the insect populations, or donate some time or money to a watershed. Or you could make the decision to commit to a lifestyle choice that would make the greatest impact of all in helping the environment.

The "pink elephant in the room of global warming discussions" is the indisputable link between animal products and accelerating climate change. A new UN Environment Programme study this week stated that the fastest way to slow climate change is reducing greenhouse gases such as black carbon (soot), methane, and ground-level ozone rather than only carbon dioxide. An example of how animal products are an overwhelming cause of environmental suffering can be found in Brazil, where over 75% of methane and over half of deforestation of the rainforest comes from livestock.

As the population has grown, meat consumption has simply become unsustainable. Over 55 billion animals are killed for food each year and they consume an enormous amount of resources.

The UN suggests a worldwide dietary change away from animal products, and UN Under-Secretary and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, said, "A substantial reduction of [climate/environmental] impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

A focus area is that we don't have to wait for government policy toward animal products to change. In fact, with the power and wealth of the meat and milk industries, it is uncertain whether it will. America's voracious appetite for meat combined with imperialist fast food chains have become unsustainable. We have the power to choose to limit or eliminate animal products in our own lives-- we don't have to wait on the government to enact laws to change.

According to Elke Stehfest of the Netherland Environmental Assessment Agency, "We explored the potential impact of dietary changes on achieving ambitious climate stabilization levels. By using an integrated assessment model, we found a global food transition to less meat, or even a complete switch to plant-based protein food to have a dramatic effect on land use. Up to 2,700 Mha of pasture and 100 Mha of cropland could be abandoned, resulting in a large carbon uptake from regrowing vegetation. Additionally, methane and nitrous oxide emission would be reduced substantially."

The choice to become vegetarian or largely plant-based is no longer a personal choice of compassion or balking at an industry lacking integrity, but an urgent necessity for the healing of our earth.