Greta Thunberg Wants You To Go Vegan For Climate Change

The 16-year-old firebrand activist is vegan for the planet. And she encourages anyone who’s listening to follow the same.

Greta Thunberg is a climate change activist who walks the talk. She travels by train to cut down on aviation fuel emissions, she sailed to New York on a zero-emissions superyacht to address the UN General Assembly, and she is vegan because one of the leading causes of global warming and climate change is animal agriculture.

Greta  has convinced her parents to adopt a vegan diet, and she claims initially, they were resistant. But once she told them about the consequences for the planet, they decided to join her. While some critics say that “bullying” her parents into choosing a vegan diet is unfair, we have to question whether it is permissible for anyone to be an environmentalist (or even care about the environment) while continuing to eat meat.

The facts can’t be ignored: factory farming (animal agriculture) accounts for a greater proportion of greenhouse gas emissions (at 18%) than land, air and sea transportation combined. It also causes severe damage to the environment in terms of water and land resources used. It’s estimated that animal farming is responsible for 20%-33% of all freshwater consumption in the world today, and, livestock covers 45% of the world’s total land. That's land that can be used to grow food crops for humans and water that can be diverted to communities that need it most.

If the fires raging in the Amazon weren’t enough of a wake-up call, Greta’s speech should make you question what’s on your plate with urgency. The more meat we eat, the faster the Earth burns. And in Greta’s own words, "Right here, right now is where we draw the line. And change is coming, whether you like it or not."

So let’s try to make that change positive, and change what’s on our plates. The future is vegan!