Our reliance on fossil fuels is a major factor in climate change, but as an exhibition at the Norwich Public Library explains, our diet contributes more to the global emission of greenhouse gases than the fuel we use in our cars and trucks.
Retired climate scientist Abraham Oort, who developed the Norwich display, together with Ray Kowalchuk, executive director of the International Vegan Film Festival, and art designer Lisa Burke, saw the link between human behavior and climate change in the late 1980s in his work at NOAA.
During the past decade, he became aware of the role our diet can play and realized that a wholesale change to a plant-based diet could reverse global warming. Since that revelation, he has devoted much of his time and energy to making the public and politicians aware of the benefits of a plant-based diet.
The exhibition at the Norwich Public Library is part of that effort. It clearly illustrates the relationship between industrialization and global warming and the adverse impact of large-scale animal agriculture on the climate. Charts show the 1.45 degree Celsius increase in global and land temperatures since 1980; graphs display our current land use, whereby 37% of the land on Earth is used for animal agriculture as compared to 12% used for plant agriculture and 1% used for human settlement and cities; pictures show the impact of large scale animal agriculture on our water supply and forestlands; and written materials dispel myths that plant-based diets cannot provide sufficient nutrients for human survival.
The two most compelling charts describe the history of global warming, and the positive results we would experience if we resolve the climate crisis through changes in our diet. The graphic illustrating the history of global warming links the agricultural revolution that began 12,000 years ago to the deforestation needed to provide grazing for livestock, to the mistreatment of animals associated with “efficient” farming, to the fact that the heating of our planet began only 40 years ago. According to the chart, converting to a plant-based diet leads to reforestation, the liberation of animals and an increased interdependence between humans and nature.
I share Oort’s conviction that converting to a plant-based diet is an important and overlooked element of controlling global warming. In a presentation I offered in an Osher class on climate change several years ago, I outlined the medical, environmental and ethical reasons for changing the way we eat.
There are countless books and essays advocating the health benefits of a plant-based diet. It requires fewer calories to feel satiated, which lowers one’s BMI, thereby decreasing the probability of heart-related diseases. A plant-based diet also eliminates animal fats, which have been linked to various cancers, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and 13 of the top 15 sources of cholesterol-raising fats.
Finally, a plant-based diet increases the absorption of calcium and bone metabolism, which helps with the formation of new bone tissue. As for those who are concerned that such a diet would compromise their athletic ability, I offer Tom Brady, Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul as examples of self-proclaimed plant-based dieters.
Most of the environmental benefits of converting to a plant-based diet were included in Oort‘s presentation, with two notable exceptions.
First, a plant-based diet requires far less water than one requiring any animal products. John Robbins’ 1987 book “Diet for a New America” noted that a plant-based diet has a water footprint of 300 gallons; a vegetarian diet requires 1,200 gallons; and a meat-based diet 4,000 gallons. The depletion of water is more perilous than the depletion of fossil fuel, for there is no alternative water source while there are several alternatives to fossil fuel energy.
Second, animal excrement and the methane animals generate is a by-product of a meat-based diet. An EPA study earlier this century calculated that a typical 2,500 cow dairy operation generates as much fecal waste as the entire city of Minneapolis and is not subject to the same level of regulations. This waste factor is compounded given that two cows generate as much heat-trapping gas as one car driving 10,000 miles a year.
For many, the most compelling reason for considering a plant-based diet is an ethical one, based on the mistreatment of animals that results from the large-scale factory farming associated with eating meat. Animals, like humans, are sentient, and they suffer when their movement is restricted and they are forced to eat chemically treated food, to say nothing of the pain associated with their ultimate slaughter.
Oort‘s exhibition includes a political cartoon. The first panel shows a politician on a dais asking the audience, “Who wants change?” and the audience responds “WE DO!” The second panel shows the same politician asking the same crowd, “Who wants to change?” The audience is silent.
At the very least we need to make a small change. A day when we intentionally leave the car in the garage. A day without meat. Setting the thermostat higher in the summer and lower in the winter. We don‘t need to wait for a government regulation. We can do it ourselves, so the problems our grandchildren need to solve are just a little bit smaller.
Wayne Gersen is a retired public school administrator. He lives in Etna.