New Year’s resolution? Look no further.

In 2015, Will Steffen pin-pointed climate change as a crucial threat to human society as it represents an interconnected system of feedbacks that are integrated with other boundaries at a global scale. 

In fact, large variations in climate would drive our planet out of the Holocene state. This is not surprising as climate mirrors the balance of the earth system’s energy: if the equilibrium is disrupted not only human but all life on the planet may be threatened.

As the planet warms up, atmospheric and ocean circulations change leading to variations both in the biogeochemical flows and in freshwater ecosystems. Nutrients and water availability, respectively driven by biogeochemical and freshwater flows, are the base of agriculture and food security. Climate change is happening and 350 ppm is already an outdated planetary boundary. 

On the 26^th of December, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 404.56 ppm

A vegetarian World

As this short documentary explains, livestock farming emissions make up a very significant portion of the total global emissions. A recent report by the FAO confirmed that over a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, calculated in CO2 equivalent, come from livestock. Moreover, there is a number of gases aside from carbon dioxide that could be augmenting the warming trend. In fact, livestock farming releases 37% of the world’s methane, 64% of ammonia and 65% of nitrous oxide purely through animal’s manure.

Apart from direct emissions, livestock farming causes a substantial amount of indirect emissions. In fact, deforestation, especially in Latin America, is largely held accountable as a driver of carbon release into the atmosphere. As land-cover is changed to allow for new land for pastures, forests are lost and peatlands are left to degrade leading to the emission of 17% of the total global green house gases.

If you care about the environment, should you be a vegetarian?

Peta is the most famous animal rights non-profit organization in the world. In a recent article, they explain how all meat-eaters should be held twice as much more responsible in terms of climate change than vegetarians and I happen to agree.

Let's talk numbers.

For every ton of tofu, 0.8 tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere but for every ton of pork 6.1 tons of CO2 are emitted. Moreover, it takes almost 3500l of water more to produce a kg of pork than soybeans.

Some may argue that this is worth it because pork has more calories than soybeans so ultimately eating meat is more efficient. Guess what, I don’t agree.

Tofu only has 32% less calories than pork but it emits 87% less CO2.

Kristen tweeted this image from a recent article that featured on the World Economic forum:

Emissions of different types of food

By becoming a vegetarian in 2017, you alone could stop 1.5 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere every year. If you want to get started, here are some links you might find useful: the Vegetarian Starter Kit and Meatless Mondays.

And on this note, HAPPY NEW YEAR!