Why don’t environmental groups advocate for more climate-friendly diets?
In what “was Possibly the largest environmental protest ever held in the world, over a million children in over a hundred countries joined the “Global Climate March, demanding that governments act now to reduce climate change and global warming.” ”. “The concerns of the young protesters are justified” and “backed by the best available science,” wrote a group of scientists and academics. “The huge mobilization of the Fridays for Future/Climate Strike movement shows that young people have understood the situation. “As scientists and academics, we strongly support their demand for swift and decisive action.”
In terms of our food supply, there is are There are a number of small adjustments that can help, such as feed additives that can reduce livestock belching, but if we put them all together, according to the prestigious EAT-Lancet Commission, we are only talking about reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 10 percent. in 2050. By contrast, if we switched to plant-based foods instead, “increased consumption of plant-based diets could reduce emissions by up to 80%.”
As you can see below and at minute 1:02 of my video. Which diets have the smallest carbon footprint?all those cow, sheep and goat burps only represent a fraction of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming.
That’s why, according According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), becoming a so-called “climate carnivore” and simply reducing consumption of ruminant products like beef would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating a healthier diet and limit meat across the board. And the fewer animal products, the better, as seen below and at 1:32 of my video.
“What diet has The least environmental impact on our planet? A systematic review found that “the vegan diet” (eating completely plant-based) “is the optimal diet for the environment,” but it’s not all or nothing, as you can see below and at minute 1:49 in my video. Even alone court Reducing meat consumption to less than an ounce or two per day could get you halfway there in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In regards to land use, as you can see here and at minute 1:56, a healthier diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, can decrease your footprint by about a quarter, while even more plant-based diets can reduce land use by 50 percent or more.
In general, diets that include Meat requires about 3 times more water, 13 times more fertilizer, more than twice as much energy, and 40 percent more pesticides than eating patterns that don’t. If you look even more broadly, the total environmental impact of omnivorous versus vegetarian versus vegan diets and consider not only global warming, but also ocean acidification, agricultural runoff, smog, water and soil ecotoxicity, and toxicity direct human contact with the air we breathe. we breathe, the water we drink and the soil from which we grow our food, eating eggs and dairy can be 9 times worse than plants and eating eggs, dairy and meat can be 17 times worse than limiting yourself to plant foods. As a bonus, “replacing “All animal products in the American diet with plant-based alternatives will add enough food to feed, in total, 350 million more people, far beyond the expected benefits of eliminating all food waste in the supply chain.” supply”. That’s more than the population of the United States and more than if we completely eradicated food waste.
“Change Meat-eating habits can be seen as a relatively cheap and easy way to mitigate climate change, in contrast to many other climate-mitigating behaviors—factors beyond our control. However, surveys suggest that few “seem to recognize the option to eat less meat as an important opportunity to assist in the mitigation process.” In fact, “research has shown that consumers often underestimate the impacts of meat consumption on the environment, in general, and on climate change, in particular… The extraordinary effectiveness of the less meat option (as established by climate experts) was recognized by only 12 % of the Dutch and 6% of the Americans. sample,” and that was after they were asked to assume that climate change was really happening.
“There is There is overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and that we are driving it,” but only about half of American adults believe it. This is not a coincidence. Just as the tobacco industry attempted to subvert the “overwhelming evidence that smoking and secondhand smoke cause cancer and heart disease,” companies like “Exxon orchestrated a climate change denial campaign that stalled significant efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.” for decades.”
However, environmental groups should certainly know better. “None of the highest-profile NGOs examined…featured meat consumption and climate change among its main climate change web campaigns.” Everyone was “aware of the scientific evidence connecting livestock production and meat consumption to climate change”, but, evidently, “scientific evidence alone was not enough to force NGOs to adopt campaigns on the issue.” It is like another form of denialism that can become “a negative feedback loop”; It is an unpopular topic to discuss, so it is not discussed, so it remains unpopular to discuss. “This, in turn, deprives the issue of the attention that would be necessary for it to gain greater prominence” and explode.
When environmental groups have sent a message In this regard, “they have favored calling for moderate reductions in meat consumption,” which is “notable given research demonstrating the environmental benefits of completely or nearly meatless diets.” It could be a much more powerful lever on an individual level to go even further, but they don’t want to be seen as narration people what to do Instead, they advocate for small changes, like turning off your computer monitor at lunchtime or printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. However, the “cumulative impact of a large number of people making marginal improvements in their environmental impact will be a collective marginal improvement in their environmental impact. However, we live in a time when we need urgent and ambitious changes.”
This is the last video in a three-part series. If you missed the first two, watch Win-win dietary solutions to the climate crisis and What foods have the lowest carbon footprint?.
Also take a look Friday Favorites: Which Foods and Diets Have the Smallest Carbon Footprint?.
For more, I also have an older video, Diet and climate change: cooking up a stormand this digital download on the use of plant-based or cultured meat as a climate (and pandemic) mitigation strategy.
