Ever wondered if it’s real that veganism combats climate change? This research leaves no doubt!
Nature Sustainability (one of the world’s leading and most respected scientific journals) has published a new report showing the incredibly positive impact plant-based diets can have on climate change.
We’ve shared the abstract/summary below, but here’s a brief version and explanation for you:
This new study has revealed the huge ‘carbon opportunity cost of keeping livestock’. But what does that mean?
It means there is a huge amount of carbon from the atmosphere that land could draw down/capture (using trees/plants etc.) if it were not being used for animal farming/livestock production. It also means there is an ecological opportunity cost – for example: the woodlands, wetlands, wolves, wild herbivores and thriving ecosystems the land could support if it were rewilded and turned away from animal farming.
Veganism Combats Climate Change: How do I explain to my friends, family and colleagues?
The research shows us that it is far better to use land for plants (e.g. trees, grass, crops) to draw down carbon from the atmosphere, rather than farming animals for meat/dairy etc.
The impact we can have by switching our food production to plant-based/vegan diets is even larger than previously thought. The report explains how a shift to plant-based diets could enable us to draw down over 500 gigatons of CO2e*… that’s 500 billion tons! This would give us a fighting chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃.
So there you have it! From an environmental point of view, this is the strongest argument in favor of plant-based diets we’ve ever seen!
Of course, there are many other reasons to leave animals off your plate (animal welfare, food resources, health etc.). But this one is impossible to ignore: the future of our planet depends on it. So make sure you have it up your sleeve next time someone challenges veganism/ plant-based living and asks you to explain it all: Veganism combats climate change and stops global warming!
Veggly is here to help
That being said… we hope you don’t have to explain veganism all the time and you find someone who shares your love of animals and our planet! And that’s why Veggly exists!
To see some of our success stories and messages from our users who found love from their Veg-Matches, please see this page here.
And to stay up to date with all of our announcements, other news stories, blog posts, and future partnerships, please subscribe to our blog and follow the growth of Veggly across our social channels:
* CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) is a unit for measuring carbon footprints. CO2e is used to express the impact of each different greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of CO2 that would create the same amount of global warming.
