Just by simply changing to a vegan diet it reduces greenhouse gas emissions drastically, greenhouse gas emissions are gases in the atmosphere that trap heat, if we were able to replace just half of all meat based meals with vegan meals it would reduce greenhouse emissions by 35%.
There are two main greenhouses gasses this are methane and carbon dioxide , methane is over 80 times as potent as as carbine dioxide in trapping heat into our atmosphere, by us humans feeding ridiculous amounts of grain and water to farmed animals only for them to be killed shortly after then transporting them so that they can be stored is very detrimental to our atmosphere and the main reason why climate change is hot topic in recent times around 80% of deforestation in the amazon rainforest have been caused by cattle ranchers who are destroying land to raise the animals, the billions of animal that are being crammed onto factory's each and every day produce an unbelievably high amount of methane, animals such as cows, sheep, and goats produce a lot of gas while they are digesting their food, methane is also emitted through cesspools filled with animal waste, the U.S EPA (environmental protection agency) that animal agriculture are the single largest source of methane emission.
Carbon dioxide is another main greenhouse gas, by burning fossil fuels such as gasoline it causes carbon dioxide to be release into the atmosphere it apparently takes on average about 11 times as much fossil fuel to produce a calorie of animal protein as it does to produce a calorie of grain protein
many researcher have come to the conclusion that it would benefit us a lot more/be more climate efficient to produce protein from vegetable sources rather than producing them from animals as we are currently doing now, there have been calls for a carbon tax on meat for a long time in order to help combat the climate crisis that we currently find ourselves in, a carbon tax on beef would would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, eating more vegan meals than animal based meals is the best way to reduce the carbon footprint.
The UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is considering a full vegan diet in order help tackle climate change as she believes people will need to make these lifestyle changes if the government is to reach there reduction goal of 78% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, various experts say that changing what we eat each and every day is a necessary change that we have to make for the future of our planet but in order to do this the government have to find some sort of way to incentives it.
Studies show that that by choosing the vegetarian option would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions per person by 3% others show a reduction in emissions per person for 20-30% for halving meat consumption.
“Probably the most important thing to point out is that emissions are often viewed as the only metric of sustainability: they are not. Impacts of farming systems on carbon sequestration, soil acidification, water quality, and broader ecosystem services also need to be well considered,” said Mathew Harrison, Matthew Harrison is a systems modelling team leader at the Tasmanian institute of agriculture.
One of the most impactful things that anyone can do to fight climate change is make small tweaks to their diet, this is most beneficial method as not only is it helping the planet but by only making small changes it will ruin meals that you enjoy.
Nearly three-quarters of people in the UKandmore than half of Americans think it is important to eat sustainably.
However to find correct information on which foods are really sustainable is often confusing or misleading. The first big challenge is knowing how to weigh up all of the different factors that contribute to food's emissions for example there is excellent evidence that plant-based foods require less energy as well as producing less gas emissions than animal product, but what if those plant-based products have been flown halfway around the world before they get to your table, transport consumes one third of all final energy in the EU.