Why vegetarian?

Next week students in my grade will change one of their habits in order to be more environmental. I decided to do something that would help reduce one of the main problems in the U.S: global warming. It is an extremely serious issue, and it’s not just going to fix itself. With the President we have now it’s not going to get any better, which is why we have to do something ourselves. Donald Trump has made it perfectly clear that one of his top priorities is to dismantle Obama's climate change policies that he has put into place for the past eight years.

At first I thought that fossil fuels are the main thing causing global warming, so I came up with the idea that I should stop using regular transportation and ride my bike everywhere. This would be very difficult because I have to get to many places pretty quickly and riding a bike would not be the most effective way. I also have a fear of riding a bike next to cars because I feel like I am very slow compared to them. Also riding a bike in this very cold Washington weather, which changes sometimes because of global warming and climate change, would make the experience worse.

After watching the documentary Cowspiracy, narrated by Kip Andersen, I have completely changed my mind on what habit I should change to help reduce global warming in the U.S. I learned that cows are actually the main cause of global warming because first we are burning forests to raise cattle. We are taking Earth’s natural resources and putting carbon dioxide into the air. You may be asking yourself for another reason why cows are the main cause of global warming. Raising cows produces more greenhouse gases than cars, trucks, and planes combined. Cows generate a lot of methane during their digestion process, which is a greenhouse gas causing temperatures to rise. Did you know that about half of the U.S’ land is used to raise cattle? This causes a surplus of cows and a surplus of methane going into the air causing temperatures to rise.

So this is why I decided to go vegetarian. Although a change in diet is very difficult, it can be easy if you are determined in succeeding and know that you are doing it for a very important cause.