http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/20/1985/I’m tempted to move to Britain, and not just because I saw an early screening of Michael Moore’s amazing new movie, Sicko (go see it; tell all your friends). What got me is that an official with the UK’s Environment Agency has acknowledged that humans can significantly help stop global warming by adopting a vegetarian diet.
Of course, the science could not be more clear. When U.N. scientists looked at all the evidence, they declared in a 408-page report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow that raising animals for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in the world combined. And scientists at the University of Chicago showed that a typical American meat-eater is responsible for nearly 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide a year than a vegan.
But for someone in government to admit this is something special, since even Al Gore refuses to talk about it (which makes me think that perhaps he is planning to run). What happened is that someone posted a comment on the Environment Agency’s Web site asking, “Adopting a vegan diet reduces one person’s impact on the environment even more than giving up their car or forgoing several plane trips a year! Why aren’t you promoting this message as part of your
campaign?”
In response, an Environment Agency official wrote that the “potential benefit of a vegan diet in terms of climate impact could be very significant” and offered assurances that the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is working on a set of “key environmental behaviour changes” to mitigate climate change—including promoting vegetarianism.
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