Author: Matthew Davis / Source: Big Think
- Results from recent research suggest we have roughly 12 years to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If we can’t, then the amount of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere will have compounding feedback loops that progressively warm the planet up further.
- One of the biggest culprits in warming the planet is the production of beef and sheep meat.
- Anybody could help prevent climate change by consuming less beef and sheep, or by cutting them out entirely.
Isn’t it nice when complicated problems have simple solutions? Take, for example, our diets. There’s a confoundingly large amount of research on what goes into a healthy diet, and fads such as the Atkins, keto, and paleo diets all claim to be the easiest, best, and one true way to lose weight and stay healthy. But really, all of the critical information one needs to stay healthy was summed up in seven words by the journalist Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Easy! Now you don’t have to buy new diet books every five years. But those seven words might also be a simple answer to an even more complex problem: Climate change.
In October of 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an extremely gloomy report. In it, researchers wrote that humanity has just 12 short years to change our behavior in order to limit global warming to a tolerable — although still dangerous — 1.5 degrees Celsius. If we can’t do that, we can say goodbye to coral reefs, and say hello to increasingly extreme weather events, sea level rises between 33 and hundreds of feet, and an equator too hot for most forms of life.
What can we do?
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
It may feel like an individual can’t do too much to make a contribution. But fortunately, changing your diet is something everybody can do. Based on the report’s findings, we can drastically cut emissions and pollution if we switch to “flexitarianism.”
Flexitarianism is just a flexible form of vegetarianism. You don’t have to give up meat, you just have to follow the last part of Michael Pollan’s advice: For the most part,…
The post Want to help fight climate change? Try going ‘flexitarian.’ appeared first on FeedBox.