{"id":45608,"date":"2014-08-04T13:36:50","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T12:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=45608"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:46","slug":"want-to-have-a-real-impact-on-climate-change-then-become-a-vegetarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/08\/want-to-have-a-real-impact-on-climate-change-then-become-a-vegetarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to Have a Real Impact on Climate Change? Then Become a Vegetarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millennials who care about the environment should put their money where their mouths are and stop eating meat.<\/em><\/p>\n

Between widespread economic disparities, population growth, unsustainable agriculture and climate change, Nasa predicts that civilization as we know it could be steadily heading for a collapse<\/a> within the next century \u2013 and the window to create impactful change is narrowing. That means millennials are potentially the last generation during which creating meaningful change is possible. But how do we accomplish this?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to start a dietary revolution.<\/p>\n

Millennials represent $200bn in economic worth<\/a>, and if a statistical majority of our generation become vegetarians or vegans, or at least eat significantly less meat than previous generations, we have a chance to have a real economic \u2013 and thus environmental \u2013 impact.<\/p>\n

In 2012, there were roughly 70bn animals raised as livestock<\/a> for 7.1bn people. And a study published in July<\/a> by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that livestock production is among the most destructive forces driving climate change: it degrades air quality, pollutes waterways, and is the single-largest use of land.<\/p>\n

Precisely how much livestock contributes to climate change remains up for debate: studies show numbers ranging from 18% (a 2006 UN food report<\/a>) to 51% (a 2009 World Watch study<\/a>). Most other studies fall somewhere in that range but, in each of them, the advice is the same: humans need to eat less meat to curb climate change and resource scarcity.<\/p>\n

Raising animals to eat produces more greenhouse gasses<\/a> (via methane and nitrous oxide) than all of the carbon dioxide excreted by automobiles, boats, planes and trains in the world combined. Over a 20-year period, methane has 86 times more climate change potential than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide has 268 times more climate change potential, according to the 2006 UN report. Radically reducing the amount of methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere can produce discernable changes in the greenhouse gas effect within decades, while the same reductions in carbon dioxide take nearly a century.<\/p>\n

Yes, quitting meat can reduce your carbon footprint significantly more than <\/a>quitting driving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Besides the methane and nitrous oxide released during livestock production, industrialized livestock contributes to roughly 75% of deforestation<\/a> (to give animals grazing grounds and grow soybeans used in feedstock).<\/p>\n

Raising cows, of course, has the biggest environmental impact. There are roughly 1.5bn cows raised as livestock, and they consume 45bn gallons of water and 135bn pounds of food every day, according to the documentary Cowspiracy<\/a>. Comparatively, 7.1bn humans<\/a> consume roughly 5.2bn gallons of water and 21bn pounds of food daily<\/a>. To put this in digestible terms, producing the meat for a one-third pound hamburger patty as much as 18,000 gallons of water<\/a> depending on the farming method, according to the US government.<\/p>\n

In comparison to chickens and pigs, cows require 28 times more land, 11 times more water and cause five times more greenhouse gasses, according to a study led by Gidon Eshel of Bard College<\/a>. Looking at foods commonly found in vegetarian and vegan diets, like potatoes, rice and wheat, his report finds<\/a> that, per calorie of beef, cows require 160 times more land and produce 11 times more greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

The resources needed \u2013 and sacrificed \u2013 to raise livestock is ridiculous; we simply need to stop breeding so many animals for slaughter. You can take all kinds of other small steps to reduce your environmental footprint: commuting to work by biking or walking, monitoring electricity usage<\/a> by installing energy-efficient appliances, using less water<\/a> via low-flow faucets and toilets, buying from environmentally-conscious companies<\/a> – but researchers argue that none of that on its own will be enough to reverse climate change. If you really want to make a difference, then look at what\u2019s on your plate.<\/p>\n

As Albert Einstein said, \u201cNothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.\u201d If you\u2019re not willing to go vegetarian or vegan, even just significantly reducing the amount of meat in your diet can have an impact: for instance, instead of adhering to \u201cmeatless Mondays\u201d, make it \u201cmeaty Mondays\u201d, when Monday is the only day that you eat even a small portion of meat.<\/p>\n

Putting this off for another generation \u2013 the way our parents have \u2013 just isn\u2019t feasible. Millennials have the opportunity to use our economic power and personal choices to effect real change, and it\u2019s our responsibility to do so.<\/p>\n

Besides, if we don\u2019t stop and reverse climate change, all we\u2019ll have left to eat \u2013 if we\u2019re lucky \u2013 is fish. Whoops \u2013 looks like we\u2019re running out of fish<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Millennials who care about the environment should put their money where their mouths are and stop eating meat. It\u2019s time to start a dietary revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}