Can Eating Less Meat, Save Miami?
When ones mentions climate change, Florida is usually the victim of the conversation, especially when it contains such popular cities such as Miami, located in South Florida. (Some say Miami is the party city of the US…) With Miami sitting a sponge-like rock — limestone, it’s not easy to think dark when it comes to Miami’s future. And it’s easy to get caught up in all the catastrophic headlines like:
By 2040, sea levels are expected to be 10 to 17 inches higher than 2000 levels. Is Miami doomed?
In reality, the field of science is ever-changing. So are these trends (to some degree…)(sorry)
So what can we do on a personal level to help mitigate and curb these long-term trends? The single and greatest tool we have is how we eat. Our diet.
Simply, the carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet versus a standard is considerably less. Exactly, it’s estimated that shifting to plant-based diets reduces CO2 emissions by over 1200kg of CO2/year, and for vegans, over 1500 kg of CO2/year. That’s as much as a single passenger on a transatlantic commercial flight.
Food production accounts for almost a quarter of human-related emissions, of which agriculture currently produces about 12% and livestock about 18%, with beef and dairy animals producing over 40%.
The way we eat could be shifted to significantly curb down these trends.
(No pressure Mom)
