In his New Year address on Friday, Pope Benedict urged people all over the world to alter their lifestyles in an effort to promote environmental preservation and sustainability. He emphasized the importance of environmental responsibility and individual choices in the collective aim to find global peace and save the planet. He stated, "An objective shared by all, an indispensable condition for peace, is that of overseeing the earth's natural resources with justice and wisdom" (Reuters).

How can our individual daily choices have any impact on global climate change and the preservation of our natural resources? Well, think about what you eat on a daily basis and where your food comes from. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that meat production is responsible for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, offers practical advice to those of us willing to make personal sacrifices to help tackle urgent environmental problems: "In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity. Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there."

Animal welfare group based in the UK, Compassion in World Farming, calculated that if the average UK household halved meat consumption, emissions would decrease more than if car use was cut in half. Fortunately, we are no longer deaf to the call of logic and reasoning. In a recent online poll conducted by The Vegetarian Resource Group in the United States, three percent of U.S. adults  (~6-8 million) indicated they never eat meat, poultry and fish/seafood. Eight percent of respondents stated that they never eat red meat. These numbers increased significantly from 2006 results, when 2.3 percent of Americans identified themselves as vegetarian, and 6.7 percent stated that they never eat red meat.

                        Image taken from Blog on the Food Inc. Documentary (Greenwala)

We can fight climate change with diet change. The 2006 UN Report calls the meat industry one of the most "significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." We all talk about curbing emissions and devising long term solutions for Global Climate Change. Instead of just talking, let's alter our diets and actually contribute to a real solution. Look forward to my upcoming posts where we will discuss the substantial factors involved in generating greenhouse emissions, with respect to the meat industry.