Go Green!

Are you an environmentally conscious person? There are so many tips and tricks to help save the planet, one action at a time. Did you know that recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a computer for 30 minutes? Or that unplugging your appliances can shave 10% off of your electricity bill? And, if you reuse a mug instead of disposable coffee cups, you can save 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year? Reducing our carbon footprint is one of the most important things we can do to ensure that future generations will enjoy this beautiful planet. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted as a direct or indirect result of an activity. We can not reduce our footprints to zero, because CO2 is being emitted all the time. What we can do though, is significantly reduce our footprint in small simple ways.

What is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint? You guessed it! Becoming Vegan.

I purchased a small but mighty book the other day called “How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint; 365 Simple Ways to Save Energy, Resources, and Money” by Joanna Yarrow. I learned that by avoiding meat altogether, you can cut the C02 associated with your diet by about half. For maximum impact, you can cut down on dairy products too. For every pound of beef you avoid you’ll trim your carbon footprint by up to 13lb of C02!

In the last 50 years global meat production has increased fivefold. The amount of meat a person eats has also doubled. It requires so much more land and water (and about 10 times more energy) to produce animal than vegetable protein. One of the biggest problems seen with meat production is the large amount of methane animals produce on factory farms.

“Methane traps 21 times more heat per molecule than C02. Methane is a naturally occurring trace gas and a normal part of our atmosphere. But, each cow in a factory farm produces from 100 to 520 quarts of methane gas daily. This wouldn’t be so bad BUT with all the animals we’ve bred for food, the scales have tipped…The livestock we keep-to feed us meat that hurts our bodies-produce more methane than landfills, waste treatment plants, and even the methane we use as natural gas to heat our homes!
Also, more than 50% of the corn grown in the US is eaten by animals, and only 8% for human use. While 1.2 billion people do not have enough to eat every day, we’re bending over backward to make damn sure the 20 billion cows, pigs, and chickens are getting fatter and fatter by the minute”.
-The Kind Diet

Livestock are designed to eat grass, but that doesn’t make them fat soon enough. So they are fed corn, which makes them sick (but fat). So, we pump them full of antibiotics to try and make them healthier. And now, 70% of antibiotics sold go to livestock! Not to mention the pollution from waste. The meat industry causes more water pollution in the US than all other industries combined. More than 10 billion animals are raised and killed for food every year in the United States ALONE. They have to eat and their waste has to go somewhere. This gets into our water and into the soil.

Facts:

The average American could do more to reduce global-warming emission by becoming vegetarian than by switching to a hybrid car!

Producing one pound of meat is responsible for more greenhouse emissions than going for an hour’s drive while leaving all the lights on at home.

Producing one pound of wheat requires 100 gallons of water. One pound of beef requires 25 000 gallons.

So, what if we all started eating plant based diets. We wouldn’t have to eat the meat that has eaten the corn. We would be saving water, space, and reducing pollution and methane emissions. You’d also become healthier and you’d be saving an animal’s life. All positive changes with one sacrifice on your part.

But, if veganism or vegetarianism isn’t for you, you can shop locally and save miles by buying produce directly and buy organic products (so you know your food is free of pesticides and you are supporting local farming). There are also endless sites where you can calculate your carbon footprint and see where you need to make some improvements.

There are lots of websites that cater to your other environmental questions and concerns. One fun website I like to visit is http://www.greenissexy.org/. This site was created by our favorite actress, Rachel McAdams. Her and her two friends have a mission to prove that being green IS sexy. And a wise man once said:
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet”
_Albert Einstein