My Eco Tip Twelve

Eat Less Meat

Changing what we eat could offset years of carbon emissions. Scientists say that

Switching to plant based diet could offset 16 years of carbon emissions.

Growing plant protein such as beans and nuts, needs fraction of the land that livestock does. But 83% of all agricultural land is given over to animal husbandry.

Thus shrinking the space available for carbon absorbing landscapes like forests and

Vegetation. But by scaling back agricultural land use and allowing greenery to regrow. We could double our carbon budget.

The remaining fossil fuels we have left to burn before global temperatures rise 1.5 degrees Celsius. The shift could have the greatest impact on higher income countries where diets can be changed without jeopardizing the food security.

Reducing meat consumption could also have benefits for water quality and quantity as well as biodiversity and wildlife habitats and reducing the likelihoods of pandemics.

Human-made emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases as a prime driver of global warming.

Agriculture and other land use accounts for a quarter of total carbon emissions.

Humanity needs urgent and rapid reductions to meet the Paris Agreement aims of a well

Below 2 degrees Celsius rise. Would you switch to a plant-based diet?

Bottom Line

Meat consumption is high in the United States, China and several other high-income

Countries. If emissions from meat production were suddenly halved, it would have a big

impact on global warming by reducing our consumption of carbon dioxide (CO2) which has been the major driver behind climate change since long before industrialization because its concentration in  ancestral times was primarily through vegetation such as forests if not directly “burnt” or “fossilized” in fires through open land and then buried under the rains in old river beds. Further, deforestation continues to be a major driver of global warming today as areas that once were forests are overtaken by high-stock agribusinesses.