We all want to save the planet, but there are many different ways to do it. What’s your passion? What fuels your earth-loving efforts, motivates you to take action, or inspires you to click on “donate now”? No matter what aspects of the big blue marble you’d most like to help heal, simply switching to a vegan lifestyle is one of the most powerful actions you can take. Not sure how it works? Check this out.
The Rainforests
Rainforests are so much more than a bunch of beautiful trees. The level of biodiversity they hold is staggering, and the oxygen they produce enriches the air in our atmosphere. When rainforests are cleared—webecoist.com estimates we lose more than 23 million acres a year—approximately 90 percent of the time it’s to create pastureland. This means that if everyone switched to a meat-free or meat-minimal diet, we would take a very big step toward halting the destruction of the rainforests. Of course, it’s a little farfetched to expect everyone to switch to veganism anytime soon, but it’s really easy to imagine everyone not eating meat for a day or three a week.
Forests and Natural Habitats
According to some sources, more than 260 million acres in the United States alone have already been destroyed in order to clear the way for animal agriculture. And because the world’s meat consumption has steadily increased for the past 50 years, this continues to threaten and devastate not only our trees and air quality, but also many species of plants and animals, as well as entire ecosystems. If you personally want to save one acre of U.S. forestland from being destroyed every year, all you have to do is switch to veganism.
Water Conservation
There are a number of conflicting statistics about how many showers worth of water go into producing one pound of beef. I’ve read that it’s one years worth of showers, and I’ve also read that it’s two-and-a-half weeks worth of showers, but that begs the question of how many showers each person takes. Either way, it’s a lot of water. Animal agriculture consumes more water than any other single factor in our country, and producing one pound of beef requires at least 10 times the amount of water it requires to produce the same amount of soybeans. As if that weren’t enough, the pesticides, nitrates, and fertilizers used in animal agriculture are getting into the groundwater, compromising ecosystems or killing them off entirely. Eventually, these chemicals find their way into drinking wells, cisterns and those huge bodies of water that are home to some of Earth’s largest creatures.
The Oceans
Commercial fishing is posing a huge challenge to the health and biodiversity of the oceans, not only by literally decimating some important fish populations, but also by accidentally trapping, killing and injuring dolphins, whales and porpoises on a regular basis. If you’ve ever snorkeled or gone scuba diving, you may already be aware that coral reefs (the gorgeous and amazingly biodiverse rainforests of the sea) are being rapidly compromised and destroyed by harmful commercial fishing practices.
Additionally, baby seals would not be slaughtered for their pelts if no one wanted to wear them. While not many of us wear seal pelts, those of us protesting seal slaughter will have much more of an ethical leg to stand on if we stop wearing leather, feathers, pearls, and other animal-derived materials, all of which pose their own very real threats to animals and the environment.
Carbon Emissions
In 2006, the United Nations reported that animal agriculture was responsible for a larger percentage of greenhouse gas emissions than all of the world’s transportation combined. So if you haven’t been able to buy an EV or hybrid car, you’ll be glad to know you can have an impact on emissions in another major way. Switching to a vegan diet reduces more carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car for the same amount of time. It also costs a lot less, and you don’t have to haggle with a salesman.
World Hunger
There’s more than enough food for every human being alive, so why are people still dying of hunger? For one thing, much of our agricultural produce is being fed to cattle and other animals, rather than to humans. Theoretically, every piece of meat that we decide not to eat equals more food for people who have little or nothing to eat.
Your Own Health
While you’re saving the planet, you might as well save yourself, too. According to the well-researched and -respected Oxford Vegetarian Study, vegetarians generally live longer, healthier lives than meat eaters.
Photo courtesy of Ernst Vickne
