Climate Catastrophe: What You Can Do
Upworthy’s article depicting a massive chunk of a glacier in Greenland break off and melt before the eyes of a horrified film crew is making waves in social media today. Especially eerie is the image of Manhattan superimposed on the glacier, for that was the size of the piece that broke off.
Folks on my Facebook feed are asking how they can move from feeling helpless to being empowered to tackle the crisis. Often, when I speak about the solutions even to friends, I hear the words “unrealistic” or “extreme.” Not true.
The win-win solution that is available to us every hour of every day is to eat a plant-based diet.
Immediately, it will signal to the market that vegan products are in demand (this is already happening by the way, with Google Trends showing a doubling in searches for “veganism” since 2009 and many new vegan products appearing for sale in your local grocery stores, including, surprisingly, Target). Over time, as a forthcoming scientific article indicates, veganism will allow freed up grasslands to be restored to forests to sequester more carbon than we have added to the atmosphere since the industrial era began.
A vegan diet has been proven to have the lowest greenhouse gas footprint, lowest water footprint, least cruelty to animals, ability to reverse heart disease, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes and control cancer, and less land, and less forested requirements and compared to meat and dairy. This is, by definition, a win-win solution.
So, if you’re out there despairing about the climate and you’re moved to action, change what you eat and make the biggest difference you can!
A balanced and nutritious plant-based diet has myriad benefits for your health, and for reducing climate change.