In case you missed the news, humanity spent the Earth Day week reaching another sad milestone in the history of catastrophic climate change: For the first time, measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million, aka way above what our current ecosystem can handle…. [Y]ou probably did miss the news because most major media outlets didn’t cover it…. Instead, they and their audiences evidently view such information as far less news-, buzz- and tweet-worthy than (among other things) the opening of George W. Bush’s library and President Obama’s jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner….Here’s the good news, though: The fastest way to reduce climate change shouldn’t seem impossible, because it requires no massive new investments, technological breakthroughs or long-term infrastructure projects. According to data compiled by former World Bank advisers Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, it just requires us all to eat fewer animal products.
I could turn this post into a sermon about the benefits of going vegan (or at least vegetarian), which I did a little over a year ago. I could, but I won’t…because there’s another way to make a similar argument in a much more immediate fashion. There’s little doubt that countries like India, China, and Brazil contribute to the uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gases. America, though we like to considered ourselves more disciplined in how we regulate greenhouse gases, is as guilty as anyone through our unbridled consumption of fossil fuels. That no country seems willing to accept a diminution of their collective standard of living is almost a matter of faith, one that would seem to complicate efforts to arrest global climate change.
Fortunately, there’s good news to be had…though it involves making a sacrifice, something we Americans frankly suck at. Bear with me, though….
[W]hen you account for feed production, deforestation and animal waste, the livestock industry produces between 18 percent and 51 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Add to this the fact that producing animal protein involves up to eight times more fossil fuel than what’s needed to produce an equivalent amount of non-animal protein, and you see that climate change isn’t intensified only by necessities like transportation and electricity. It is also driven in large part by subjective food preferences — more precisely, by American consumers’ unnecessary desire to eat, on average, 200 pounds of meat every year.
That’s right, y’all; we’re poisoning our planet;, but it turns out that we possess the means of improving the situation. There’s a very simple and easy solution for me. Well, it’s easy for me because I’ve already done it, but if we could all see our way clear to changing our eating habits just a wee bit, there could be hope for us.
I’ll grant that the wide disparity between 18% and 51% is disconcerting. It reflects the debate currently being waged over how to measure the impact of livestock on greenhouse emissions. Whatever the actual percentage may be, it seems clear that livestock have a major impact on the production of greenhouse gases.
Goodland and Anhang found that most of what we need to do to mitigate the climate crisis can be achieved “by replacing just one quarter of today’s least eco-friendly food products” — read: animal products — “with better alternatives.” That’s right; essentially, if every fourth time someone craved, say, beef, chicken or cow milk they instead opted for a veggie burger, a bean burrito or water, we have a chance to halt the emergency.
The question is whether or not we’re willing to take responsibility for the damage we’ve done to the global climate. Are we willing to change the way we view food and, more importantly, what we eat? Are we able to recognize the problem…and also that we hold the solution in our hands, or, more accurately, on our plates?
[E]nvironmentalism and conservation — like everything else — have been unduly politicized. Consequently, opposing those once-universal values now seems to be viewed by many on the right as a constructive expression of patriotic defiance. Indeed, according to one recent study, many self-described conservatives will refuse to buy a green product once they see it marketed as being environmentally responsible. Similarly, another study shows that conservatives are prone to consume more energy when warned that they are already using a lot.
In light of that, I’m sure some conservatives will read this column and send me email smugly pledging to eat even more meat than they already do, just to make some incoherent point about freedom. What they will really be proving, though, is that no matter how straightforward a climate change solution may be, we will never be able to combat the crisis until everyone is willing to sacrifice just a little bit, and nobody pretends ecological survival is anything other than what is: an apolitical, transpartisan priority.
This isn’t about politics, nor should it be. It shouldn’t even be about those Conservatives who insist on ignoring the available science because it doesn’t comport with their lazy anti-intellectualism and moral vacancy. When (or if) selfishness and self-interest cease being driving forces behind human behavior, we might be able to take the first step towards saving our planet and ensuring that we can hand of a healthier ecosystem to our children and grandchildren.
Sure, going vegan or even vegetarian would do wonders for our health and our planet. For those of you firmly attached to the concept of the food chain, even cutting your meat consumption by 25% will help. Not all of us own factories that we can retrofit to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, but all of us can make a small sacrifice by changing our eating habits. Even if you’re skeptical about global climate change, wouldn’t it stand to reason that eating fewer animal products would be a good thing?
It’s our choice. The question is what choice we’ll make. Will we choose immediate gratification or will we recognize that we need to make changes in order to save the only planet we have?
You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not overflowing with optimism.
