Change of Lifestyle for Our Benefit

We can easily adopt into our lifestyle:

A Plant-Based Diet
The greenhouse gases associated with the production of meat are comparable and possibly even more significant than the fossil fuel impact. And the demand for water associated with meat production is also huge making a heavy environmental footprint and thus impact on the planet. A plant-based diet goes a long way towards reducing these impacts.

Healthy Forest and Plant Based Foods
Moving away from a meat diet demands the development of quality produce like nuts and fruits, vegetable and roots, and other horticultural alternatives to meat production. This is healthier and will make a positive change in the reduction of greenhouse gases. Changes in consumer demand, which often come from awakened ethical choices, do lead to a reduction in our environmental footprint.

Why?
Well, the Worldwatch Institute made an assessment of human-related greenhouse gases attributable to the life cycle and supply chain of livestock products. The assessment concluded that it is responsible for at least half of greenhouse gases – and maybe more. Some of these emission sources have been assessed before but underestimated, or assigned to another sector, while others have been overlooked. The assessment co-authored by two environmental specialists, Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, is coupled with a mitigation strategy that involves replacing livestock products with better alternatives for human consumption. The assessment can be found at: Livestock and Climate Change. In contrast, the widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock’s Long Shadow, estimated that only 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But Goodland and Anhang find it accounts for more as they take into account other factors in the life cycle and supply chain.

In addition, we can demand and support:

Halt to Deforestation
We must maintain our carbon forests. The forests of the earth – whether in Australia, in the Amazon, in Indonesia or elsewhere – are the age-old storehouses of carbon in the form of cellulose and organic matter. Cutting them down can lead to a release of their carbon content into the atmosphere and de-energizing our environment. We need to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Development of Forestation
Many areas of the world have lost their forests, and deserts are left in their wake. These areas have the potential to become forests again, and the surrounding areas of agricultural land can then also be regained as productive land for cultivation. For a tree, 40% of its weight is carbon. Growing trees is a direct way of locking up the carbon in the atmosphere, giving life to our lands, and also for later energizing our atmosphere with oxygen. A green environment makes a significant contribution to a lucid living space and also to clarity of mind.

Why?
Our Earth has been constantly coping with the ways in which human being use natural resources, including clearing forest lands and cutting of trees. We have to give back to the environment. Afforestation is the process of planting trees or sowing seeds in barren lands to recreate a forest or create a new forest. This is a high priority. We also need to do reforestation which is the process of planting native trees into a forest that has decreasing numbers of trees. Both help extend the life of the planet and its living organisms.

So, come on, make the change today to a plant-based diet and help our forests.