Can Just One Person Make Worthwhile Contribution to Climate Change?

We like to think we are making a big contribution to reducing emissions by using re-useable bags to bring our purchases home, buying local organics, driving less, etc. And those are very important contributions. But what you actually eat has a greater impact than whether you buy organic, or local, or how it is packaged and how you bag it up to bring it home. Can one person really make any difference at all? YES!! The impact we can make individually is significant, collectively it is extraordinary.

Convincing the world to eat vegan would enormously impact efforts to reverse climate change, but admittedly that is impossible. But as individuals, the changes can be simple and we each need to take responsibility and start making small changes. Our food system around the globe produces about one fourth of the greenhouse gasses warming our planet. Of course we do all need food, and some of this is certainly generated by growing, processing and transporting plant foods, which is encouraged as the primary part of our diet. Meat and dairy account for as much as 15 percent of those greenhouse gases. Amazingly that is about the same as emissions from all the worlds vehicles each year, including planes and ships. .

Per 50 grams of protein, beef has an average impact of nearly 18 kilograms of CO2. Pork, fish and poultry are about on the middle of the scale. Tofu, beans and nuts all combined only impact greenhouse gas by 1.5 kilograms. Changing our diets can reduce emissions fairly dramatically. If we eat vegan we can reduce our emissions impact by 45% on average! Eating vegetarian reduces the impact by 30%, substituting some meat with plants by 30% and replacing beef and lamb with other less impactful meats can reduce by 20%. There are easily attainable goals there for all of us. Just start with things that are easiest for you and continue to make whatever changes you can.

These are the most effective changes we can make as individuals:

• Change your diet to nearly all plant based

• Eat only what you need, which is typically around 2000 calories a day

• Stop wasting food, at home and in restaurants. Americans alone throw out as much as 20% of their food.

If we all only meet those goals half way, combined with farming using sustainable practices and increasing yields, we could reduce worldwide emissions by well over 800 billion metric tons! And with continued reduction of fossil fuel emissions we just might prevent another degree of warming. That may not seem like much, but if we continue on our current path we will warm another degree, and another and another.

There are so many studies with valuable information. University research studies publish in journal Science, a United Nations science panel studies the worldwide impacts, and leading experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, and around the world study and calculate emissions. Learn and do your part, starting with the simplest changes:

• Substitute beans or lentils for beef at least once a week

• Eat seasonal and local

• Compost food scraps or make soup

• Quit buying bottled water, buy a good re-usable bottle

• Grow an edible garden

This will be a perfect winter to start cooking new vegetarian and bean based foods. You might be surprised how delicious and interesting vegetarian cooking has become when you start searching recipes. Hopefully, like me, you will enjoy it enough to more consistently eat vegetarian! Check out my favorite garden fresh and vegetarian recipes, and share your favorites!