Meat consumption contributes to climate change because of the high emission of green house gases it produces. Besides that, it also requires large amount of land and resource. One possible solution that is in the bag is to change our dietary lifestyle.
Mentioned in the earlier paragraph, meat consumption is one of the leading causes of climate change. Firstly, raising livestock produce immense amount of greenhouse gases. Two most significant greenhouse gases produced are carbon dioxide and methane. Large amount of these gases in the atmosphere traps the heat of the sun thus increasing the global temperature, leading to climate change. One kg of beef is equivalent to 27kg of CO2 emission which is the same like driving a car for 101 km. In addition to that cows produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day which is more dangerous than 23 years of CO2 emission.
Second thing is that raising livestock for consumption is also the leading cause of deforestation. One published study reported that 80% of cattle ranching is responsible for amazon deforestation. This is serious because forest acts a carbon sink where they trap and store carbon dioxide. Forests are responsible for 40% absorption of man-made carbon dioxide emission. When trees are cut down, it seriously compromises the absorption of carbon dioxide, increasing the gases trapped in the atmosphere.
Research is conducted on a group of students (27 people) in Cawthra Park. Data revealed that only 18% of the students implementing vegan/vegetarian diet. The report stated that it is not surprising because meat forms a large part of Canadian diet. Several factors such as the school does not make vegan/vegetarian diet easily accessible. However, 58% of the students are willing to switch vegan/vegetarian diet. This means that the students realize that eating meat has several negative impacts to wellbeing and planetary health. Thus, they are open to change their dietary menu.
For the action, we need to make meat free alternatives (alternative protein or plant-based) more accessible, and educating people on the environmental impacts of their dietary habits. For example, is to create a 7-day vegetarian meal plan to get help them started. If 7-day is still too hard to implement, another alternative is to implement Meatless Monday. Every Monday, the whole diet menu cannot consist meat at all. Posters, billboards and social media can be used to advertised the campaign so many people can take part in it. @petikine and @meatlesskingdom has started a 7-day plant-based challenge. Hopefully the challenge can educate people on how lifechanging plant-based diet is.
Source:Change Your Meat, Change Your Diet!
image by: unsplash.com
Meat-free alternatives are definitely becoming more commonplace, as evidenced by such creations as “impossible” hamburgers, hot dogs, and the like. Thanks for sharing this info!