The Bottom Line on Climate Change: It's What's For Dinner!

The Bottom Line on Climate Change: It's What's For Dinner!

Let's Act Now tells the public the other inconvenient truth - our meat eating habit is a principal cause of global warming and a meatless diet can stop runaway climate change

February 2nd, 2009, New York /PRNewswire/— Let's Act Now launched today a nationwide Public Service Announcement campaign stressing the urgency of climate change and its connection to our food choices. The campaign urges the public to understand their own personal responsibility in stopping global warming. According to a special report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, animal farming produces more greenhouse gases than all global transportation combined. A switch to a plant based diet is the single most effective action a person can take to mitigate the effects of accelerating climate change.

According to the chief climate scientist at NASA, Dr. James Hansen, "There are many things people can do to reduce their carbon emissions, but changing a light bulb and other things are much less effective than changing your diet. Because if you eat further down on the food chain rather than animals which have produced many greenhouse gases, and used much energy in the process of growing that meat, you can actually make a bigger contribution in that way than just about anything. So in terms of individual actions, it is the best thing you can do."

Animal agriculture, including "sustainable," locally-raised animals, is a huge cause of global warming, creating nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also uses up most of our water, is responsible for the majority of rainforest destruction in the Amazon, and is a direct cause of global hunger. Changing our diet to a meat-free, dairy-free, egg-free vegan diet can significantly and rapidly reverse global warming, lower emissions, reduce deforestation, avoid drought, and help feed the hungry.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and winner of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Al Gore, has this to say about the matter: "If you were to take into account the entire chain of meat production and consumption, it is hugely intensive in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore I always say that if you eat less meat, you will be healthier and so would the planet. We consume far too much meat in this world! It would help the global community enormously if we ate less meat, the entire meat cycle is very, very intensive in terms of carbon dioxide emissions…more than anything else, it is a win-win solution if we eat less meat."

The Let's Act Now website (http://letsactnow.org) stresses that the simple act of reducing meat consumption in our daily diets would have a major impact on global warming. As a coalition of concerned groups and citizens, the Let's Act Now website includes extensive data published in "Livestock's Long Shadow," a study of factory farming produced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006. Also on the website are analyses of the impact a plant based diet has on food and water resources, and public health, as well as discussions of ethical and moral considerations. Moreover, it has links to many other data-rich sources, such as CNN, the New York Times and Supreme Master Television.

All lives on earth are interconnected. Just imagine the power we have when we make our simple daily decisions. We can determine our own well-being and the well-being of others; we can choose to protect or threaten the welfare of animals; and most of all, we can choose to help save or destroy the planet we all live on. We have come to the critical moment when we have to decide which direction we want to go…. Let's Act Now!

PSA Directed by Award Winning Producer Lionel Friedberg
The Let's Act Now PSA was produced by the multi-award winning producer/director/writer/cinematographer Mr. Lionel Friedberg. His film, "A Sacred Duty," is a stark reminder of the cruel and unsustainable practices of factory farming. According to Mr. Friedberg, "It may sound outrageous or far-fetched, but the only way to avoid an irreversible ecological catastrophe from destroying our world is to switch to a plant-based diet. From studies undertaken by dozens of organizations, including the United Nations, meat-eating is undermining our planet in so many ways. Beyond that there are the proven health benefits that are derived from a vegetarian lifestyle. And let us not forget that we are so distanced, detached and divorced from our food sources that people who eat the flesh of other beings pile not only toxic, tarnished and unhealthy commodities on their plates, but also heaps of unmitigated misery. The suffering endured by creatures destined for human consumption is beyond comprehension."

Media Contact:
Pamela Millar
pamela@bridgemakersconsulting.com

650-464-8068