A planet in crisis
Never in the last two hundred thousand years of 'modern' humankind has man had as much disregard and done as much damage to his habitat and fellow animals as in the past hundred years.
We are embarking on an era now called the Anthropocene – used to describe the most recent period in Earth's history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet's climate and ecosystems.
Extinction: the baseline extinction rate is about one species per million per year. Scientists agree that today it is 100 to 1000 times higher than this. We are heading towards Earth's sixth mass extinction. [1]
More than 45% of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production. We are literally mowing down and destroying natural habitats for millions of other species, to use for cattle and other livestock, and their feed. [2]
The animals that we eat all take more calories in feed to grow them big, then they produce as 'food'.
It takes approximately 25kg of grain to produce 1kg of steak. It is calculated to take about 2500L of water to produce the beef for ONE hamburger. [3]
We have commandeered the earth's natural resources and overwhelmed our planet, in order to feed and then kill 80 BILLION land animals every year. Yet we cannot adequately feed 8 billion humans. It is estimated that if we just ate crops from the land we use for animals we could easily feed another 3.5 billion more people.
Livestock and their bi-products account for 51% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. [4]
Methane is 20-100 times as destructive for the environment as C02 [5]
NEW ZEALAND
Fertilisers, effluent and dairy waste find their way into waterways, causing toxic algal blooms and killing native fish.
The Manawatu river is one of the most polluted in the world. Most of the Waikato’s rivers and streams are unsafe to swim in, with approximately 90% of pollution being caused by rural runoff from dairy farms and other pasture.
The 16,000 pigs in an intensive operation cause as much effluent as a city of 23,000 people, and this is largely untreated. Reids piggery in Carterton (owners of the Premier Bacon brand) were convicted for dumping what essentially amounted to raw sewage into waterways.
The ocean
Fishing takes 2.7 trillion fish from oceans globally each year. If this rate of fishing continues, the oceans will be “virtually empty” by 2048.
38% of global mangrove deforestation is caused by shrimp farming.
93% of all carbon is stored in the ocean; Marine plants can store up to 20 times more carbon than land-based forests. However, warming ocean temperatures are causing the ocean to lose its ability to absorb carbon, which will have devastating impacts on the climate- losing just 1% of the oceans’ carbon stores is the equivalent to releasing emissions from 97 million cars.
https://earth.org/facts-from-seaspiracy/
Going vegan
Switching to a vegan diet is the single most efficient act you can take to reduce your environmental footprint on the planet. It's about starting to think differently and not succumbing to marketing by corporations who have a different agenda.
If you'll give up using plastic straws to save fish, it makes sense to give up eating fish to save fish!
If you care about the environment and what the future will look like for the next generation, there is no better or wiser option than giving up eating others.
When you feel that our planet's problems are so big, there is nothing that YOU can do to make a change, it is empowering to realise that there is. The power of going vegan makes a change every single day – for the animals you don't eat, for the shops and restaurants that notice the change in consumer choice and for the people you meet that suddenly know another vegan.
The vegan community is vibrant, welcoming and inclusive.
The food is insanely good, with choices growing by the day.
No longer participating in the suffering of others and the unsustainable and destructive animal agricultural industries – that feeling is priceless.
Switching to a vegan diet is the single most efficient act you can take to reduce your environmental footprint on the planet.