Climate change is threatening the future of our planet as we face long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. Since the nineteenth century, through burning fossil fuels, human activity has been the main drivers of this climate change. If we do not change our actions and attempt to reduce the amount of pollution emitted, we can face conflicts and crisis' like food and water scarcity. Furthermore, the frightening repercussions of our actions and how it influences climate change are not only in future predictions but are also currently being faced, as severe weather and rising sea levels are affecting people and their property in developed and developing countries.
One influence on climate change is the meat production industry, as it is responsible for greenhouse gasses, deforestation and it's inefficient use of environmental resources. It is for this reason that I intend on sharing some statistics on the effects of vegetarian diets can have on attempting to reduce and eventually stop the climate crisis, in the hopes that it will spread awareness surrounding the consumerism of meat products and encourage others to change their consumer and dietary habits.
Through reducing the amount of meat consumed through a vegetarian diet, the reduction of carbon emission is substantial. The reduction of meat consumed would inevitably reduce the amount of meat produced, resulting in the reduction of carbon emissions throughout the entire meat manufacturing segment. Aiming to reduce carbon emissions will help mitigate the effects of climate change, creating a positive effect on planet and animal diversity, and thus public health.
The meat production industry is using a significant amount of our limited resources. Climate change is resulting in the inevitability that we will face a limited amount of availability of water. Whilst using up limited resources, the meat production is also creating this limit in resources through its large production of carbon emissions, accelerating climate change and its impacts on our planet as climate change is resulting in an irregularity of rainfall, making it harder to predict and estimate the availability of water as a resource. Furthermore, as we face a predicted increase in population, the demand for water will increase, faced with even more limited water!
Therefore, through reducing the amount of meat consumed, we would also be reducing the amount of water wasted on the production of meat, resulting in the conservation of water alongside the reduction of fossil fuels.
Similar to the previous statistics, the product of meat produces an excessive amount of carbon emissions that is greatly impacting our planet and expediting the impacts of climate change. Vegetarian diets reduce these emissions significantly and would have a greater impact on attempting to limit climate change and the deterioration of our planet. By reducing our carbon emissions by following a vegetarian diet, we would be improving our public health alongside the reduction of climate change, improving air quality and maintaining biodiversity.
According to the Good Food Institute:
"Animal agriculture takes up 77% of all agricultural land on Earth despite supplying only 17% of humanity's food supply. This inefficiently derives the need for agricultural expansion, which is the single largest driver of ecosystem damage on land."
If changes in diets and consumptions of meat don't happen soon, we can face extreme heatwaves, water scarcities, droughts and food shortages, resulting in millions of individuals becoming climate refugees.
If the entire world followed a plant-based diet, we could feed every mouth on the planet and global farmland could also be reduced by more than 75 percent. Furthermore, this would enable us to be able to reforest and restore land, reversing the impact we have had on the world's biodiversity, and as a result, reducing the climate change we face.
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