# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude-as far as is possible and practicable-all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

There are many ways to embrace vegan living. Yet one thing all vegans have in common is a plant-based diet avoiding all animal foods such as meat (including fish, shellfish and insects), dairy, eggs and honey - as well as avoiding animal-derived materials, products tested on animals and places that use animals for entertainment.

Some people may choose to go vegan, for some it may be because they do not believe in farmed animal practices and animal exploitation, for others it may be due to environmental concerns. Whatever the reason The Vegan Society is here to support everyone on their vegan journey.

Although the vegan diet was defined early on in The Vegan Society's beginnings in 1944, by Donald Watson and our founding members.It was as late as 1949 before Leslie J Cross pointed out that the society lacked a definition of veganism. He suggested "[t]he principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man". This is later clarified as "to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man".

The society was first registered as a charity in August 1964 but its assets were later transferred to a new charity when it also became a limited company in December 1979. The definition of veganism and the charitable objects of the society were amended and refined over the years. By winter 1988 the current definition was in use - although the phrasing has changed slightly over the years.

Read more on the history of veganism.

So what do vegans eat?

A great deal - you'll soon find a whole new world of exciting foods and flavours opening up to you. A vegan diet is richly diverse and comprises all kinds of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds, beans and pulses - all of which can be prepared in endless combinations that will ensure you're never bored. From curry to cake, pasties to pizzas, all your favourite things can be suitable for a vegan diet if they're made with plant-based ingredients. Check out our vegan recipes for ideas.

It's not just about diet

Vegans avoid exploiting animals for any purpose, with compassion being a key reason many choose a vegan lifestyle. From accessories and clothing to makeup and bathroom items, animal products and products tested on animals are found in more places than you might expect. Fortunately nowadays there are affordable and easily-sourced alternatives to just about everything. With over 65,000 products and services registered with our Vegan Trademark alone, living a vegan lifestyle has never been easier. Browse our online shop today.

Start your vegan journey today by downloading our VeGuide app. You can also join The Vegan Society by completing our quick and simple online form. As a registered charity we rely on our members, and we are so grateful to everyone who supports us. For just £2 a month, your membership will go towards helping us to spread the word of veganism and create a world where animals are free to exist in their own right. In return you'll receive access to over one hundred vegan discounts, our quarterly magazine, exclusive competitions and more!

Other aspects of vegan living

Currently all medicine in the UK must be tested on animals before it is deemed safe for human use, but please note: The Vegan Society DOES NOT recommend you avoid medication prescribed to you by your doctor - a vegan who is looking after themselves the best they can is an asset to the movement. What you can do is ask your GP or pharmacist to provide you, if possible, with medication that does not contain animal products such as gelatine or lactose. For more information visit the medicines website, which contains information on medicines prescribed in the UK, including ingredients lists.

Medical charities

If you're a medical charity supporter you may wish to check whether your chosen charity performs animal testing. There are many charities that don't currently conduct animal tests and many vegans prefer donating to charities that actively seek alternative methods of testing.

Entertainment

Vegans choose not to support animal exploitation in any form and so avoid visiting zoos or aquariums, or taking part in dog or horse racing. A great alternative is visiting and supporting animal sanctuaries that provide safe and loving homes for rescued animals.

Want to find out more about the vegan lifestyle? Sign up to the free Vegan Pledge today. There are hundreds of thousands of vegans across the globe - with you, we're that much stronger.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is a vegan and vegan food? What does veganism mean?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
recycling, recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. The basic phases in recycling are the collection of waste materials, their processing or manufacture into new products, and the purchase of those products, which may then themselves be recycled. Typical materials that are recycled include iron and steel scrap, aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, wood, and plastics. The materials reused in recycling serve as substitutes for raw materials obtained from such increasingly scarce natural resources as petroleum, natural gas, coal, mineral ores, and trees. Recycling can help reduce the quantities of solid waste deposited in landfills, which have become increasingly expensive. Recycling also reduces the pollution of air, water, and land resulting from waste disposal.

There are two broad types of recycling operations: internal and external. Internal recycling is the reuse in a manufacturing process of materials that are a waste product of that process. Internal recycling is common in the metals industry, for example. The manufacture of copper tubing results in a certain amount of waste in the form of tube ends and trimmings; this material is remelted and recast. Another form of internal recycling is seen in the distilling industry, in which, after the distillation, spent grain mash is dried and processed into an edible foodstuff for cattle.

External recycling is the reclaiming of materials from a product that has been worn out or rendered obsolete. An example of external recycling is the collection of old newspapers and magazines for repulping and their manufacture into new paper products. Aluminum cans and glass bottles are other examples of everyday objects that are externally recycled on a wide scale. These materials can be collected by any of three main methods: buy-back centres, which purchase waste materials that have been sorted and brought in by consumers; drop-off centres, where consumers can deposit waste materials but are not paid for them; and curbside collection, in which homes and businesses sort their waste materials and deposit them by the curb for collection by a central agency.

Society's choice of whether and how much to recycle depends basically on economic factors. Conditions of affluence and the presence of cheap raw materials encourage human beings' tendency to simply discard used materials. Recycling becomes economically attractive when the cost of reprocessing waste or recycled material is less than the cost of treating and disposing of the materials or of processing new raw materials.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Recycling | Definition, Processes, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recycling, recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. The basic phases in recycling are the collection of waste materials, their processing or manufacture into new products, and the purchase of those products, which may then themselves be recycled.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can it be cleaned up?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With so much seafood now containing plastic, the question is no longer are we eating plastic, but how bad is it for our health? In seawater, plastic absorbs chemicals like PCBs and DDTs which have been linked to endocrine disruption and even some cancers, becoming more powerful as they work their way up the food chain. Microplastics have now been found in human blood and disturbingly known to pass from mothers to their unborn children through the placentae.

The beach is where we go to connect with nature. It's simply not the same if it's covered in plastic. And with coastal tourism worth £5.5 billion to the UK economy, many of us count on it being clean for our livelihoods.

Even if you don't eat fish or go to the beach, everybody breathes. And all that essential oxygen? Marine plants produce a massive 70% of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Immerse yourself in plastic trash and its shocking impact on our blue planet to better understand the big issues at play.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
However, impacts in one place can have knock-on effects for all regions. For instance, people being displaced from one area could lead to mass migrations, and crop failures linked to extreme weather could raise global food prices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is climate change? A really simple guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
World temperatures are rising because of human activity, threatening every aspect of human life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Advises how to identify suitable mitigation and adaptation measures in the planning process to address the impacts of climate change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
climate change, periodic modification of Earth's climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system.

The atmosphere is a dynamic fluid that is continually in motion. Both its physical properties and its rate and direction of motion are influenced by a variety of factors, including solar radiation, the geographic position of continents, ocean currents, the location and orientation of mountain ranges, atmospheric chemistry, and vegetation growing on the land surface. All these factors change through time. Some factors, such as the distribution of heat within the oceans, atmospheric chemistry, and surface vegetation, change at very short timescales. Others, such as the position of continents and the location and height of mountain ranges, change over very long timescales. Therefore, climate, which results from the physical properties and motion of the atmosphere, varies at every conceivable timescale.

Climate is often defined loosely as the average weather at a particular place, incorporating such features as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and windiness. A more specific definition would state that climate is the mean state and variability of these features over some extended time period. Both definitions acknowledge that the weather is always changing, owing to instabilities in the atmosphere. And as weather varies from day to day, so too does climate vary, from daily day-and-night cycles up to periods of geologic time hundreds of millions of years long. In a very real sense, climate variation is a redundant expression-climate is always varying. No two years are exactly alike, nor are any two decades, any two centuries, or any two millennia.

This article addresses the concept of climatic variation and change within the set of integrated natural features and processes known as the Earth system. The nature of the evidence for climate change is explained, as are the principal mechanisms that have caused climate change throughout the history of Earth. Finally, a detailed description is given of climate change over many different timescales, ranging from a typical human life span to all of geologic time. For a detailed description of the development of Earth's atmosphere, see the article atmosphere, evolution of. For full treatment of the most critical issue of climate change in the contemporary world, see global warming.

The Earth system

The atmosphere is influenced by and linked to other features of Earth, including oceans, ice masses ( glaciers and sea ice), land surfaces, and vegetation. Together, they make up an integrated Earth system, in which all components interact with and influence one another in often complex ways. For instance, climate influences the distribution of vegetation on Earth's surface (e.g., deserts exist in arid regions, forests in humid regions), but vegetation in turn influences climate by reflecting radiant energy back into the atmosphere, transferring water (and latent heat) from soil to the atmosphere, and influencing the horizontal movement of air across the land surface.

Earth scientists and atmospheric scientists are still seeking a full understanding of the complex feedbacks and interactions among the various components of the Earth system. This effort is being facilitated by the development of an interdisciplinary science called Earth system science. Earth system science is composed of a wide range of disciplines, including climatology (the study of the atmosphere), geology (the study of Earth's surface and underground processes), ecology (the study of how Earth's organisms relate to one another and their environment), oceanography (the study of Earth's oceans), glaciology (the study of Earth's ice masses), and even the social sciences (the study of human behaviour in its social and cultural aspects).

A full understanding of the Earth system requires knowledge of how the system and its components have changed through time. The pursuit of this understanding has led to development of Earth system history, an interdisciplinary science that includes not only the contributions of Earth system scientists but also paleontologists (who study the life of past geologic periods), paleoclimatologists (who study past climates), paleoecologists (who study past environments and ecosystems), paleoceanographers (who study the history of the oceans), and other scientists concerned with Earth history. Because different components of the Earth system change at different rates and are relevant at different timescales, Earth system history is a diverse and complex science. Students of Earth system history are not just concerned with documenting what has happened; they also view the past as a series of experiments in which solar radiation, ocean currents, continental configurations, atmospheric chemistry, and other important features have varied. These experiments provide opportunities to learn the relative influences of and interactions between various components of the Earth system. Studies of Earth system history also specify the full array of states the system has experienced in the past and those the system is capable of experiencing in the future.

Undoubtedly, people have always been aware of climatic variation at the relatively short timescales of seasons, years, and decades. Biblical scripture and other early documents refer to droughts, floods, periods of severe cold, and other climatic events. Nevertheless, a full appreciation of the nature and magnitude of climatic change did not come about until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when the widespread recognition of the deep antiquity of Earth occurred. Naturalists of this time, including Scottish geologist Charles Lyell, Swiss-born naturalist and geologist Louis Agassiz, English naturalist Charles Darwin, American botanist Asa Gray, and Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, came to recognize geologic and biogeographic evidence that made sense only in the light of past climates radically different from those prevailing today.

Geologists and paleontologists in the 19th and early 20th centuries uncovered evidence of massive climatic changes taking place before the Pleistocene-that is, before some 2.6 million years ago. For example, red beds indicated aridity in regions that are now humid (e.g., England and New England), whereas fossils of coal-swamp plants and reef corals indicated that tropical climates once occurred at present-day high latitudes in both Europe and North America. Since the late 20th century the development of advanced technologies for dating rocks, together with geochemical techniques and other analytical tools, have revolutionized the understanding of early Earth system history.

The occurrence of multiple epochs in recent Earth history during which continental glaciers, developed at high latitudes, penetrated into northern Europe and eastern North America was recognized by scientists by the late 19th century. Scottish geologist James Croll proposed that recurring variations in orbital eccentricity (the deviation of Earth's orbit from a perfectly circular path) were responsible for alternating glacial and interglacial periods. Croll's controversial idea was taken up by Serbian mathematician and astronomer Milutin Milankovitch in the early 20th century. Milankovitch proposed that the mechanism that brought about periods of glaciation was driven by cyclic changes in eccentricity as well as two other orbital parameters: precession (a change in the directional focus of Earth's axis of rotation) and axial tilt (a change in the inclination of Earth's axis with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun). Orbital variation is now recognized as an important driver of climatic variation throughout Earth's history ( see below Orbital [Milankovitch] variations).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Climate change | Definition, Causes, Effects, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate change, the periodic modification of Earth's climate caused by atmospheric changes and the atmosphere's interactions with geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors. Loosely defined, climate is the average weather at a distinct place that incorporates temperature, precipitation, and other features.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate change refers to a large-scale, long-term shift in the planet's weather patterns and average temperatures.