Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what it does to climate change

A Cantonese old saying goes “anything that walks, swims, crawls or flies with its back to heaven is edible”. I agree, mostly. I love eating meat. Korean galbi, wagyu beef from Kobe, spicy Portuguese chorizo, roasted lamb shoulder…

I also know that climate change is a real threat that affects all of us and that we can only overcome this challenge by doing something together, shoulder to shoulder. I am prepared to do my part. I just didn’t know that eating less meat is one step humanity can take in order to assist in tackling climate change challenges and threats.

Last week, UN climate change expert, Chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and India’s seventh Nobel laureate Dr Rajendra Pachauri encouraged people to eat meat less and become vegetarians at least once a good to assist in solving global warming. Dr Pachauri argued that diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems - including habitat destruction - associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century. Read the full article in The Guardian. [Sung]