Conserving by consuming: A contemporary take on Climate Change

Climate change catastrophes taking place for about a century can be potentially softened and the planet redeemed in a matter of 30 years.

Planet needs our help, but only until the roles are reversed!
This World Environment Day 2021, let’s fix this?
Rise in global temperature is a result of emission of greenhouse gases causing the planet to inexorably heat up; human activities being the sole causal factor of the same. Due to energy intensive activities, natural resources are getting exhausted at a rate that recedes the threshold.

Currently, the food system is responsible for about a third of these greenhouse gas emissions. About half of the planet’s usable land is occupied by animals who are used for food. In addition to that, 50-60% of the edible biomass of the planet is consumed by these animals for them to be able to produce meat. As a bonus, food insecurity is rampant worldwide!”

But what are we to deduce from it? Let’s understand this through an analogy!

If the Livestock Industry was a country, the characteristics would be-

• world’s third largest carbon emitter ( particularly Methane)
• world’s largest country ( area wise)
• World’s go to food bank and food waste station .

Not only would this ‘country’ exhaust a lot of our natural resources during the process of methane generation but the ‘food’ produced here would lead to a lot of diseases worldwide. ( cancer, heart disease, obesity- to name a few)

We, as consumers, cannot change HOW the goods are produced but we have the magnificent ability to guide WHAT is produced. WE consumers make choices every passing second. Our buying behaviour sends a message to manufacturers who control the industrial production practices.

Adaptation is key. Animal agriculture exerts a lot of stress on the environment for what it’s worth. The entire process of food production and processing, transport, retail consumption, loss and waste through animals is not sustainable anymore.

A shift to a Plant based diet is the best call at the moment. A vegan lifestyle abstains the use of animals or animal products in any form (food, clothing, cosmetics etc.) Hence, serving as a legitimate tool with dual benefits; one of mitigating climate change catastrophe, and the other of having an improved quality of health (due to an exponentially decreased degree of biological magnification in food)

Image Source: Earthday.org

Myth– vegan diet lacks in protein
Fact– plants take up nitrogen from air to synthesise protein. Animals are incapable of producing protein.

Myth- vegan diet is calcium deficit
Fact- Earth’s crust largely comprises calcium which is naturally passed on to anything that grows on it ie. Plants

So yes, you might just turn the opposite of weak!

Ethical consumerism practices are our voucher to redeem the planet! We do this by being socially conscious and making intelligent consumer choices.

Adopting a sustainable lifestyle isn’t as difficult as projected by the mainstream media because literally everything we do guides the media’s behaviour and it comes full circle!

What can we do?

• It’s like Tinder but you gotta swap instead of swipe.

Let’s see how!

• faux leather for genuine leather
• Nutritional yeast for cheese
• Satin fabrics for silk fabrics
• veggie burger for a cheeseburger
• Oil for ghee/butter
• ‘Cruelty free’ cosmetics for ‘tested on animals’ cosmetics
• almond/soy/oat mylk for regular milk
• Dark chocolate for milk chocolate
• Tofu/mushroom/soya for meat
• Hummus for mayonnaise
• Red sauce pasta for white sauce pasta

It is the little things that count. Change happens in the top down fashion , it also happens in a bottom up fashion! Since we are consumers, we shape the economy and the course of industrial production.

Once the trend of ‘Plant based’ is popularised by the media, industries would capitalise on the same. As a result, there would be no means by which anything we eat/ use would be associated with animals. The prospects of which are projected to be profitable within 3-10 years of commencement.

Food scientists are already working on making the ‘best meat’ (tastier, healthier and affordable) from plant sources as a means to buffer the crisis. They are aiming to relegate the concept of ‘using animals for food’ to something that future generations only read about!

Isn’t it a win-win to take a step this Environment day towards restoring the ecosystem!? Shift to a plant-based lifestyle is indeed fundamental for attaining sustainability. By 2050 the catastrophe shall be softened, causing a happy planet with happy people and animals!