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Full Version: New diet to solve climate change
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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45814659

This article discusses limiting climate change through the development of a mostly plant based diet for all people, bringing us one step closer to the stop of our worlds increasing temperature. It is explained that if nothing is done about the behavior of humanity in regards to waste and climate change, the impact of our current food system will increase by 90%. If the world population had a flexitarian diet, which is similar to a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diet in which flexitarians only have one serving of red meat a week, the greenhouse gas emissions produced by agriculture would be reduced by more than half. This solution to lowering the amount of food loss and waste as well as adjusting our food system requires a drastic change in how agriculture is ran. 

Although the flexitarian diet brings us a step closer to ending major issues in our world, it has a lot of setbacks that could result in the failure of this solution. Not only would having the whole world's population convert to a primarily plant based diet be a challenge in itself, the possibility of conflicting with people's religion and morals could be an issue as well as the cost of the changing of agriculture. Decreasing the amount of meat consumption would affect people's livelihoods from the farmers with the livestock, to the butchers and all the way to the grocery stores that sell the meat.  

This solution in theory would be a great method to help the planet survive, but the magnitude of conflicts that would or could arise is another issue on its own that will have to be resolved before any real changes will happen.
I think this Flexitarian diet would need to be implemented over the course of years, (or however long we have before the earths climate is irreversible). The huge amounts of land used by the  beef industry would need to be downsized, and most of it would have to be converted to agricultural land, used to grow crops, if it is fertile. It is a whole other problem in itself just to take down the huge beef industry in the USA legally. This method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seems, in my opinion, one of the better, less drastic methods to help reverse climate change (compared to converting everywhere in the world to electric cars, and dealing with the very powerful automotive companies). I understand people's diets are all different, some people love eating meat everyday. But this sacrifice is for the greater good, and by comparison, a small sacrifice to literally save earth. The really hard part may be if this diet affects people's religions. Even if people do not change to this diet for religious reasons, those who do will most definitely benefit the earth's climate.
(10-22-2018, 01:12 PM)Blake Cherpin Wrote: [ -> ]I think this Flexitarian diet would need to be implemented over the course of years, (or however long we have before the earths climate is irreversible). The huge amounts of land used by the  beef industry would need to be downsized, and most of it would have to be converted to agricultural land, used to grow crops, if it is fertile. It is a whole other problem in itself just to take down the huge beef industry in the USA legally. This method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seems, in my opinion, one of the better, less drastic methods to help reverse climate change (compared to converting everywhere in the world to electric cars, and dealing with the very powerful automotive companies). I understand people's diets are all different, some people love eating meat everyday. But this sacrifice is for the greater good, and by comparison, a small sacrifice to literally save earth. The really hard part may be if this diet affects people's religions. Even if people do not change to this diet for religious reasons, those who do will most definitely benefit the earth's climate.

I agree, this method would definitely need to be influenced as soon as possible because of the speed at which it would help the world. I do also think that a new diet worldwide is a better alternative to the major changes we have been trying currently, it provides a gradual change that will in itself benefit our planet and lead to the confidence in mankind to make more changes that help preserve our world.
I have also read that our livestock farms on earth produce so much methane and other gasses, that it has a significant affect on our ozone layer and atmosphere. I find it crazy how our diet and the things we grow (livestock) to feed us can have such an affect on climate change and how a simple switch in what we eat can help us battle climate change.