Before reaching our plates, our food is produced, packaged and eventually transported. At every single stage, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, contributing to the global warming.

Especially livestock farming emits significant amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, which are both extremely powerful greenhouse gases. For example, methane has an effect on global warming 28 times higher than carbon dioxide. When livestock farming animals are digesting food, exhaling and farting, methane is released. According to “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change“ our cows would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions if they were a country, placing just right behind the US and China.

 Animal agriculture also uses 70% of the world’s available fresh water and is the leading cause of deforestation on our planet. Forests are cleared, resulting in less trees, which would absorb CO2 in order to release O2. But these are not the only shocking numbers…

Overall, livestock is responsible for about 51% of annual global emissions, according to “Worldwatch Institute“. 

We can definitely agree that animal agriculture is a - if not the - leading cause of climate change and has to be considered when taking action against it. But we can’t stop a cow from farting…What we can do is to change the way we consume food. A wise man once said: “you are what you eat“. So why not change our eating behaviour?!

A vegan diet can not only improve your health, it can also have a great impact on our climate. Did you know that the production of 1kg beef takes about 28 kg of food plus 15.000 liters of water? If the whole earth population went vegan by 2050, food-related greenhouse gases would be reduced by 3 quarters.

Yes, we know that meat is very delicious and brings us together in some sense. But even a predominant plant-based diet would make a difference. Meaning, you don’t have to go vegan immediately to take action, smaller steps have an impact on the climate as well.

In the end, it’s simply important to consume  mindfully, to be aware of the consequences the purchase of certain food items has and to make meat something special again.

We would love to hear your opinion on this topic. Feel free to share them down below in the comments! :)

sources (text):

➔ “We are the Weather” p.138-140 (by Jonathan Safran Foer)

➔ “EnvironmentallyOptimalNutritionallyAwareBeefReplacementPlant-BasedDiets”

(from:

https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/food/animal-agricultures-impact-on-climate-ch

ange/)

➔ “Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science” (from:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714)

➔ “Howcouldveganismchangetheworld?TheEconomist”(from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwoL6hWd4l0)

➔ “Why meat is the best worst thing in the world” (from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxvQPzrg2Wg)

➔ “Eatingmeathas‘dire’consequencesfortheplanet,saysreport”(from:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/commission-report-great-foo

d-transformation-plant-diet-climate-change)

➔ “How changes in our diet can help mitigate climate change” (from:

https://www.dw.com/en/world-food-day-how-changes-in-our-diet-can-help-mitigate-cli mate-change/a-50796472#:~:text=Eating%20vegan%20can%20reduce%20carbon,e missions%20contributing%20to%20climate%20change.)

source (picture):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26qzmw_xG58

Chances are, you‘ve been underestimating deforestation as a cause for our climate crisis in favour of threats more visible to you in your daily life. Now buckle up, we‘re taking a trip to those rainforests „far away“. 

You‘re now standing in rural Brazil, the smoke biting your eyes and nostrils. You see some green in the distance but most of your field of view is filled by wastelands that once were a bustling habitat for all kinds of animals and rare types of plants. 

Over the course of the last 50 years, 17% of the Amazonas has been destroyed and the rates are increasing every year. From 2016 to 2018, the area of destroyed Amazon rainforest didn‘t exceed 1000 km² per month. Then in July, they destroyed over 2000 km². 

In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected as your new president and he campaigned for a policy that would release more than two times the annual emissions of the United States. But why would anyone do that? 

The land occupied by the forest is valuable, not for the amount of carbon dioxide converted into oxygen every minute but for industrialization: Mining, drilling, urbanization, palm oil extraction, extraction of wood for building or paper production are all reasons to destroy the rainforests but the biggest offender is animal agriculture. It is responsible for 91% of the deforestation happening in the Amazon and if we allowed tropical land used for livestock to revert back, we could mitigate more than half of anthroponogenic climate change. Going vegan seems far more reasonable now, doesn‘t it? 

But not all deforestation is intentional though. A considerable portion of it comes from wildfires, fueled by rising temperatures and dry weather conditions. It feels like this is our last chance to stop this vicious downward spiral that is our climate crisis.

Interactive tools about deforestation
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/deforestation

https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/ 

https://qrco.de/bc8W4e 

2018 set the record for the highest ocean heating ever, because of the climate change. Since 1880, the sea levels swelled over 8 inches (20cm). On top of that, the sea rises  about 0.13 inches (3.2mm) every year.  This is linked to three primary factors: first of all, the thermal expansion: The water itself expands, when heated up. Then melting glaciers: mountain glaciers naturally melt. And lastly, the loss of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets: due to the melting the massive ice sheets melt more quickly. 

But what are the consequences? The rising sea levels cause destructive erosions, flooded wetland, aquifer and agriculture soil contaminated with salt, animals and plants loosing their home, more hurricanes, typhoons and powerful storms and flooded low-lying coastal areas, which also causes people in that habitat to losing their homes. 

If that is already happening, then what will bring the future if we don‘t act now? The sea levels will keep rising, which will cause hundreds of coastal cities to face floodings. Also the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that by 2100 the sea levels have risen about 10-30 inches (26-77cm) and the temperature increased by 1.5°C. It’s predicted by NASA and the European data that by the end of this century it will have risen about 26 inches (65cm).

How should we act against it? We need to adapt to threat, for example by building seawalls, rethinking roads and planting trees that will absorb the water like mangroves. 

The sea will rise no matter what we do, but we can decide how fast and how much.

Source:
From: Christina Numez: Sea level rise, explained. In: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/enviroment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/ (11.05.2020).
Video: NASA: sea levels rising as a result of human-caused climate change
https://qrco.de/bc8WBv