Take a Hike, Pack a Snack

When it comes to climate change, walking the walk is the best way to fight.

Earth Day started 51 years ago.

James Hansen testified before Congress, bringing “global warming” into the vernacular, 33 years ago.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed (not by the US) 24 years ago.

The Paris Climate Agreement (signed, left and rejoined by the US) was signed 5 years ago.

The worst year for global greenhouse gas emissions was 2019.

We know. We have known. But we don’t act. Or we’ve not acted in the ways that matter. So, with our 51st Earth Day now in the rearview, what are the right ways to act?

By lowering our greenhouse gas emissions & replenishing carbon filters and carbon sinks.

First, let’s look at ways we can lower our emissions.

Consume fewer fossil fuels. This one everyone knows, right? Drive less. Use less natural gas. Use electricity from renewable sources, if possible. Advocate against coal and fossil fuel power. All true, and all getting easier and easier to do. But the keyword is advocate. Your own actions in your own life are good — they’re symbolic — and it’s important to personally do the things that matter. But to global climate change, the truth is almost no action you take in your day-to-day life has nearly as much of an impact as advocating.

Contacting your elected representatives to tell them how you want your energy generated, what kinds of cars you want on your roads, etc. Also, advocacy with companies. Let them know the expectations you have for who you give your money to. It's hard to do, it's uncomfortable to do these things, but it makes a difference.

But the most effective thing we can do in our daily lives to have an impact? The one thing more effective than driving electric, turning the AC down, and recycling or composting everything you consume, is changing the way we eat.

Why does what we eat matter? Methane and nitrous oxide. The second and third most prevalent greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. A whopping 65% of nitrous oxide emissions come from animal agriculture, and it has 310 times the global warming potential of CO2. Methane, however, is the more abundant gas, and still has 34 times the warming potential.

These are much worse greenhouse gas that carbon dioxide, as Jonathan Safran Foer details in his book “We Are the Weather”: methane has 34 times the global warming potential as CO2 does over a century. On a shorter timeframe, like say two decades, methane is even worse — 86 times as powerful. As he puts it, “if CO2 were the thickness of an average blanket, imagine methane as a blanket thicker than LeBron James is tall.” A nitrous oxide blanket would be so tall you could commit suicide by jumping off it.

But we don’t talk about it. Because talking about people’s diets — or asking to change them — is a very touchy subject. Yet it’s true. We eat more meat per person than at any point in human history. 59% of all land capable of growing crops is used for livestock. Forests are cut down at a rate of acres per minute to make way for more livestock farms. So, we’re using more and more resources just to grow our food, and we’re eliminating more precious carbon sinks (releasing more carbon into the atmosphere) to make space for them.

Then there are the “cow farts,” which is a misnomer. These animals, ruminants like cows, sheep, and bison, belch out methane that’s created as a part of their digestion process. And there are more of these animals on this planet than ever before. There are approximately 30 farmed animals for every human on the planet. And there are over 7 billion people.

Our oceans have the opposite problem: there are fewer fish in them than ever. We’re also killing scores of sharks, whales, and dolphins in the process of catching our fish every year, meaning we’re completely changing the marine food chain. It’s estimated that 100 million sharks are killed every year. Roughly 7% of all shark species, every single year. Faster than they can reproduce. So, how long before all shark species are on the brink? And by taking out the top predator, what happens to the rest of the food chain?

You’d think other species would thrive, but everything suffers. Think of what we saw when the wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone. Prey populations balanced out, vegetation thrived, and rivers literally changed their shape. Food chains are important because they balance out feedback loops that, otherwise, would run amok.

Now, I’m not suggesting everyone go vegan. This planet will become an oven and our species will die off before that ever happens. But things like Meatless Mondays are a good start. Or, as Safran Foer suggests, consuming no animal products before dinner. Or maybe start with an intake — see how much animal products you and your family consume every day, then experiment with how much you need and try some things out.

You may discover certain meats work better for your body than others, or a certain amount energizes you, but more has a draining effect. You may even seek the advice of a nutritionist or dietitian, who could help you devise a plan to cut back that works for you. It’s really amazing how food affects us in these ways. For myself, I found I actually feel my best with no meat at all, but that’s me and I don’t expect your body to react that way. Heck, even if it did, I wouldn’t expect you to go vegetarian.

But in our western diet, we all consume a lot of animal products, and its combined effect is more dangerous even than the carbon dioxide emissions we always talk about. We can balance it out to feel better, still get our favorite cuts of meat and be better for the earth. Actions like this could make a significant difference on an individual-by-individual level.

The second step is revitalization. Replenishing and protecting our carbon sinks — replanting our forests and preserving the ones we have — is badly needed. Having more and more farmers switch to regenerative farming techniques, too, would be a boon here. It’s a lower cost to operate the farm in the long run, which means a higher profit potential, and it makes the soil healthier. This is not only good for the food we’re growing, but because healthy soil itself is an excellent trapper of carbon.

These are things we are doing and that the average citizens, like you and I, are learning more and more about. Which is great. But now we need to do all we can to embrace and encourage these changes. We need to walk the walk and talk the talk. For 51 years, we’ve talked. Let’s start walking.