A Plant-Based Lifestyle to Combat Climate Change
Climate change is considered to be one of humanity’s greatest challenges currently and the world’s gravest environmental threat. According to the United Nations (U.N.) report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, climate change is having an impact on every continent, affecting agriculture, human health, ecosystems, water supplies, and even people’s livelihoods. [1]
People are already trying to help combat climate change by using energy-saving lightbulbs and using more fuel-efficient cars; however, these actions are simply not enough. One of the best options to help save the environment is to eliminate meat, eggs, and dairy from your diet, thus going plant-based.
As briefly touched upon in the blog 10 Ways Eating Plant-Based Saves the World, animal agriculture greatly contributes to climate change in several ways. The entire process of animal agriculture itself is very energy inefficient as it includes growing massive amounts of grains which are fed to animals. As one might recall from a previous blog, it takes 100 calories of grain to produce 3 calories of beef. [2]
Moreover, forests around the world are cut down to make space for pasture as well as to grow the crops that feed the animals. These forests that are being cut down absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide—a potent greenhouse gas. Additionally, the animals themselves, as well as their manure, produce even more greenhouse gases such as methane into the atmosphere. Methane is also considered to be roughly 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide which means that it has more significant negative effects on the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is also released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas. On average, it takes about 11 times as much fossil fuel to produce a calorie of animal protein as it does to produce a calorie of grain protein. [3] Thus, considerably more carbon dioxide is released into the air from eating animals. Taking this fact into account, eating plant-based is one of the best actions to take in order to help combat climate change and global warming.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation exhaust, on the other hand, is responsible for only 13 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. [4] Also, switching to a plant-based diet will help you reduce your carbon footprint more than switching from a conventional car to a hybrid one. [3]
In addition to carbon dioxide and methane, there is another deadly greenhouse gas which is nitrous oxide. When compared to carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas. A United Nations report also finds that the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for an astonishing 65 percent of worldwide nitrous-oxide emissions. [5] Just imagine how much we can do for our planet just by going plant-based.
So, on a concluding note, here’s a useful resource to help you transition to a whole food plant-based lifestyle to help make one of the largest positive impacts to counter climate change. Best wishes!
Sources:
[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/