We see the images of coal powered power plants, with the smoke billowing from their smoke stacks. And we are aware of the exhaust from the tailpipes of our cars. Fossil fuels are obviously being burned and CO2 goes up in the atmosphere. So why is South Park Climate Solutions concentrating on Meatless Monday as a way to bring down our carbon emissions?
First off, it is easy and inexpensive. You don't have to buy a new car or invest in solar panels on your rooftop. It's simply the difference between ordering the veggie burger instead of the bacon cheeseburger or fixing up a pot of chili without the ground beef. You can also get creative with tofu and other meat substitutes, too. There are plenty of online resources for vegetarian and vegan recipes you can check out. The Meatless Monday website has some tasty recipes, and we're starting our own webpage for vegetarian recipes, too. Feel free to suggest your recipes. We need lots more! Second, we don't see the smoke stacks or tailpipes, but farm animals make a lot of greenhouse gasses; so reducing meat consumption is very effective in reducing carbon emissions. Using available data and some simple arithmetic this science website calculated that if every American went meatless for just one day out off the year it would amount to a carbon savings of 1.69 million tons of carbon dioxide (Hat tip to Tammy for finding this info). One day out of the year, 1.69 million tons of CO2. So adopting Meatless Monday can make a BIG difference. Please let us know if you're adopting Meatless Monday or reducing meat in your diet in some other way. We all can make a big difference one rutabaga at a time!
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorPaul Hormick is the founder of South Park Climate Solutions. He sees climate change as one of our central concerns, for ecologies as well as societies. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University |