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Everything Wrong With Environmentalism In 11 Minutes Or Less!

By Emily Moran Barwick | | 37 Comments
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The top environmental organizations and environmentalists should be fighting against the top threat to the environment, right? Well, they’re not.

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Table Of Contents

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  1. Environmental Issue One: Climate Change
  2. Environmental Issue Two: Water Conservation
  3. Environmental Issue Three: Fracking
  4. Environmental Issue Four: Ocean Dead Zones And Over-Fishing
  5. Environmental Issue Five: Waste Management
  6. Environmental Issue Six: Species Extinction
  7. Environmental Issue Seven: Habitat Destruction, Land Usage & Deforestation
  8. The "Too Long Didn't Read" Version

Most people care about the environment—at least enough to say they do on a study1—and most people have faith that the top environmental agencies in the world are fighting the good fight to remedy the wrongs of humankind, certain that they’re focusing on the core issues with the greatest impact.

Well, today we’re going to look at the top issues championed by environmental agencies—and the vast majority of environmentalists—and see why they’re wrong. So…very…wrong. [tweet this]

And now, on to: Everything Wrong with Environmentalism in 11 Minutes or Less!

Note on the written article: The style of the video above is a rapid-fire delivery of facts, which may come off as a bit disjointed—lacking elegant transitions—in its purely written form. Additionally, I employed ample sarcasm in my spoken delivery, which is also echoed in the written article. Lastly, In the video above, you’ll see a “tally of wrongness,” the total for which is stated towards the end of this article (it’s more of an art than a science). A timer also runs during the video to ensure it all comes in at 11 minutes or less.

Environmental Issue One: Climate Change

Environmental agencies focus on fossil fuels as the “big bad baddy” of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming—suggesting alternative energy, carpooling, hybrid cars, and biking—but animal agriculture accounts for more carbon dioxide per year than all transportation methods combined.2

[A]nimal agriculture accounts for more carbon dioxide per year than all transportation methods combined.

Emily Moran Barwick

A conservative 2006 study by the United Nations food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)3 found animal agriculture to be responsible for 18% of annual global green house gas emissions. A far more thorough 2009 Worldwatch Institute study—which took into account factors overlooked by the FAO, such as livestock respiration, land use, and methane—found that animal agriculture produces at least 32,564 million tons of carbon dioxide per year—51% of all global emissions. Comparatively, all methods of transportation combined account for only 13% of emissions.4 [tweet this]

And what do the environmental agencies point to? Reducing fossil fuel usage.

If we completely stopped all use of gas, oil, fuel, electricity, et cetera—and never used them ever again—we would still exceed our carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of 565 gigatons by the year 2030—just with the impact of livestock alone.5

So, even if we ceased all use of fossil fuels—which would be the wet dream of every environmental agency—we’d still be gassing out the planet with the one contributor—the main contributor—which they refuse to even address.

In a similar vein, the focus is always almost exclusively on carbon dioxide—but methane is 25-100 times more destructive than carbon dioxide6 and has 86 times the global warming power.7 According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), “37 percent of human-induced methane comes from livestock.”8

If we do reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as all the organizations call for, it will take around 100 years to see an actual decline—whereas reducing methane shows results almost immediately, with significant results within decades.9 So the proposed solutions are even farther from the mark of actual constructive change.

Additionally, livestock is responsible for 65% of all emissions of nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas that is 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.10

Put in comparative terms: your average car over an average day of use produces 3-12 kg of carbon dioxide;11 the rainforest-clearing required for a single hamburger produces 75 kg of carbon dioxide.12 In other words, eating one pound of hamburger meat does the same damage as driving your car for more than three weeks.

But is animal agriculture ever mentioned by any of the top environmental organizations or environmentalists in relation to global warming? Nope. They focus on alternative energy, when converting to wind and solar power will take 20-plus years and roughly 43 trillion dollars,13 and going vegan takes seconds and can be even cheaper than being non-vegan.

Environmental Issue Two: Water Conservation

Environmental protection agencies recommend to use less water, take shorter showers, use a low flow shower head. Here is where you’ll find the greatest variation from my original calculations based on a 5 gallon per minute shower head. This time around, I found that the typical shower head after 1980 emits 2.5 gallons/minute with the low flow emitting no more than 2 gallons/minute.14

To save the same amount of water as being vegan for a single year, you would have to not shower at all for almost 100 years.

Emily Moran Barwick

If you take daily 15 minute showers with a low-flow shower head, you’ll be saving 2,737.5 gallons per year. If you, instead, forgo one pound of beef one time, you’ll save 2,500 gallons of water15 for one pound of beef. This is a conservative number as figures range all the way to over 8,000 gallons of water for one pound of beef.16

While beef has by far the most egregious water footprint, no animal product is environmentally sustainable: 477 gallons of water are required to produce 1lb. of eggs;17 almost 900 gallons of water are needed for 1lb. of cheese;18 and 1,000 gallons/liters of water are required to produce 1 gallon/liter of milk.19

Environmental agencies focus almost exclusively on curbing home water usage. However, in the United States—for example—only 5% of water is used by private homes, while 55% of is used for animal agriculture.20 Worldwide, 20-33% of all fresh water consumption goes to animal agriculture—that’s up to a third of the planets water.21

If you didn’t consume beef, eggs, milk, or cheese—not even counting other meats or dairy items—based on American consumption habits from 2000,22 and the conservative figures of water per pound, you’d save 222,345 gallons of water that year.23

But the environmental agencies prefer saving 1,825-2,737.5 gallons a year by using a low flow shower head.

Oh, and the trendy little Greek yogurts out there? 90 gallons of water for a single 6 oz. serving.24 [tweet this] And one stick of butter? 109 gallons.25

Water Requirements for Select Animal Products
Beef2,500 gallons/lb – 8,000 gallons/lb20,864 liters/kg – 66,763 liters/kg
Eggs477 gallons/lb3,981 liters/kg
Cheese896 gallons/lb7,477 liters/kg
Milk1,000 gallons/gallon1,000 liters/liter
Butter109 gallons/stick413 liters/stick
Greek Yogurt90 gallons/single 6 oz serving341liters/177mL serving

If we added in all forms of dairy and meat for the average American in 2000, and use a very conservative average of 1,500 gallons per pound for the remaining meat, and an even more conservative 600 gallons for the remaining dairy,26 a single vegan year would save approximately 724,925 gallons.

Not only does that blow every water conservation recommendation out of the water, but look at it this way: to save the same amount of water as being vegan for a single year, you would have to not shower at all for almost 100 years. [tweet this]

And the advice of the supposed environmental champions: shower less, turn off the water while soaping your hands, run your sprinklers at night. Because that’s how we’re going to change the world.

Environmental Issue Three: Fracking

Fracking is the new golden child of environmentalists and their leading organizations. Fracking is destroying the planet! It’s polluting the waters!

In the United States alone, fracking uses from 70-140 billion gallons of water.27 Keep in mind for the big numbers that a thousand seconds is 17 minutes, a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31.7 years, and a trillion seconds is 31,709.8 years.

In the United States alone, animal agriculture uses 34-76 trillion gallons of water annually.28

Taking into account the exponential difference between a billion and a trillion, animal agriculture in the United States consumes anywhere from 486 to over 1,000 times (1,086) more water than fracking, the largest threat to water according to environmentalists. [tweet this]

Environmental Issue Four: Ocean Dead Zones And Over-Fishing

Some of the worst human-created devastation is in our oceans. Three quarter of the world’s fisheries are exploited.29

90 million tons of fish are pulled from our oceans each year.30

For every one pound of fish caught, up to five pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill.31

We could see fishless oceans by 2048.32

And what’s suggestion of the major ocean protection organizations?: “sustainable” fishing.33 There is no way to make 100 million tons of fish by 2050 sustainable—especially given the 5 pounds of by-catch for every one pound of fish.

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones34 with livestock operations on land having created more than 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones around the world in our oceans.35

Environmental Issue Five: Waste Management

Environmental agencies focus on industrial waste and the disposal and sanitation of human waste while a farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people36 and it is entirely untreated. [tweet this]

In fact, every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the United State alone.37 This doesn’t include the animals raised outside of USDA jurisdiction or in backyards, or the billions of fish raised in aquaculture settings in the United States.38

All of the waste from animal agriculture has no proper management system, leading to ground water and ocean pollution.

Perhaps they don’t want to address the fecal issue because they themselves are full of…moving on.

For a full DUMP of facts on the impact of animal waste, see “The Public Health Crisis of Animal Waste – Our Global Poo Problem.”

Environmental Issue Six: Species Extinction

We are currently facing the largest mass extinction in 65 million years.39 Up to 137 plant, animal and insect species are lost every day due to rainforest destruction,40 the leading cause of which is animal agriculture.

At some point in the 50 years prior to 1900, the biomass of humans surpassed that of wild terrestrial animals. By 1900, the combined biomass of humans and domesticated animals was almost 5 times the total of wild terrestrial animals. Over the lifespan of a single human, that ratio saw a 7-fold increase. By 2000, the biomass of humans and the animals we raise for food had risen to 35 times that of wild terrestrial animals.41

“Domesticated” animals alone saw a 3.5-fold increase from 1900 to 2000, resulting in a biomass 25 times that of wild terrestrial animals and over two times that of humans.42 According to researcher and Professor Emeritus Vaclav Smil:

Cattle zoomass alone is now at least 250 times greater than the zoomass of all surviving African elephants, which in turn is less than 2 percent of the zoomass of Africa’s nearly 300 million bovines.43

According44 to an interview conducted by Dr. Richard Oppenlander with Dr. Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature species survival commission:

Habitat loss from grazing livestock and feed crops is far and away the most pervasive threat to terrestrial animal species, impacting 86% of all mammals, 88% of amphibians, and 86% of all birds. One in every eight birds, one in every three amphibians, and one in every four mammals is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the near future.45

The Alliance for Global Conservation estimates 36 percent of all species on our planet are in danger of extinction. And what are the major species protection organizations recommending?: wildlife rehabilitation and conservation, fighting poaching, and breeding programs. Way to throw a bandaid on an open artery. I’m sure it will hold.

Environmental Issue Seven: Habitat Destruction, Land Usage & Deforestation

A third of the planet is desertified, with livestock as the leading cause.46

Nearly half of the contiguous United States is devoted to animal agriculture.47

1.5 acres can produce 37,000 pounds of plant-based food and only 375 pounds of meat.48

The land required to feed 1 vegan for 1 year is 1/6th acre. It’s 3 times as much for a vegetarian and 18 times as much for a meat-eater.49 [tweet this]

You can grow 15 times more protein on any given area of land with plants versus animals.50 [tweet this]

136 million rainforest acres have been cleared for animal agriculture; 1-2 acres of rainforest are cleared every second.51

In fact, animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon Rainforest destruction.52

A single quarter-pounder burger takes 55 square feet of rainforest to produce.53

But what do the major rainforest protection agencies focus on primarily? Palm oil and pulp production.

The “Too Long Didn’t Read” Version

Animal agriculture is:

  • The leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming54
  • Uses a third of the earth’s fresh water55
  • Up to 45 percent of the earth’s land56
  • Is responsible for 91 percent of Amazon Rainforest destruction57 with 1-2 acres being cleared every second58
  • And is a leading cause of species extinction,59 ocean dead zones,60 and habitat destruction61

Environmental agencies not only do not focus on animal agriculture, the absolute most devastating and pervasive single cause of multi-dimensional environmental destruction, but they actually refuse to even acknowledge it.

And individual environmentalists, by and large, perhaps as a consequence or by their own social indoctrination, aren’t even aware of this issue despite devoting themselves to championing the environment.

For the wrap up:

The actual problem is animal agriculture and the actual solution is a vegan diet.

Compared to a meat-lover, a person who follows a vegan diet:

  • produces the equivalent of 50 percent less carbon dioxide,
  • uses 1/11th the oil,
  • uses 1/13th the water, and
  • uses 1/18th the land.62

Every day, following a vegan diet saves, on average:

  • 1,100 gallons of water,
  • 45 pounds of grain,
  • 30 square ft of forested land,
  • 20 pounds carbon dioxide equivalent, and
  • one animal’s life63

Given all of these facts, it’s abundantly clear that veganism is the only answer to the environmental crisis and the environmental organizations collective failure to recognize this fact leave them with a wrongness tally total of: 13,766 (counted up throughout the video)—qualifying them for an ultimate score of: More Full Of Fecal Matter Than The 7 Million Tons Produced Every Second By Farm Animals In The United States.

It’s time to get real. You cannot be an environmentalist and a non-vegan. It’s now beyond personal choice and allowing everyone their dietary preference. The earth cannot sustain the way we eat. This is a fact and it’s fast approaching critical mass. At this point, there is no reason to keep eating animals other than the purely selfish reason of not wanting to change our habits.

If we want our children to have a world to live on, we have to stop being so childish ourselves regarding our diets and cut out the crap.

I hope you enjoyed this fact-riddled nugget. Please share it around to wake people up to the importance of this issue and feel free to tag any of the major environmental agencies when you share!

The time it took to produce this video clocks in at about 68 hours. If you’d like to help support bite size vegan so I can keep putting in the long hours to bring you this educational resources, please check out the support page.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post in the comments!

— Emily Moran Barwick

RELATED POSTS:

MORE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTENT:

environmental basis for veganism

FEATURED TOPICS:

water use in animal agriculture

waste produced by animal agriculture

public health

Corrections & Clarifications

The following is a list of errors found within the video for this article:

  1. At 2:10, I say “metric tons” instead of “million tons.” “Million tons” is correct and was caught in editing and displayed properly onscreen in the video
  2. At 2:26, I say “32,654” instead of “32,564.” “32,564” is correct and was caught in editing and displayed properly onscreen in the video
  3. At 7:43, I say “486,” but “466” is displayed onscreen. 486 is correct and an onscreen annotation was added to the video. (Note, YouTube has now deprecated the annotation function on videos, so this is no longer visible).
  4. At 10:23, I say “37,000,” but “37,0000” is displayed onscreen. 37,000 is obviously correct and an annotation was added to the video. (Note, YouTube has now deprecated the annotation function on videos, so this is no longer visible).
  5. At 10:32, I say “1/6th Acre,” but “1/16th Acre” is displayed onscreen.  1/6th Acre is correct and an annotation was added to the video. (Note, YouTube has now deprecated the annotation function on videos, so this is no longer visible).

Citations

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37 Comments

  1. Avatarsally anne hubbard says

    Wonderful information.
    This is what bothers me about the people who brag of saving the planet (they are actually saving themselves, the planet will survive but no life.) they will not eliminate the worst consumers of energy or anything they like. I am referring to meat. My advise to them is don’t wave your green flag unless and until you are 100% green.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      I feel you! Drives me crazy as well! Thanks so much for your comment. And I totally agree!

      Reply

  2. AvatarKim Herøy says

    I think this is my favorite video so far, Emily. Great job! When I stop being a broke student, I will hopefully join the nugget army. In the meantime, I hope translating this video to Norwegian is enough. ;-)

    Also, I’ve referenced you in my blog. You’re one of my go-to sources when I do research on veganism, so keep those videos coming!!!

    Auf wiedersehen,
    -kim

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      wow thank you so much! and translating is a HUGE support! i really do appreciate it!!

      Reply

  3. AvatarKendyra says

    Wow Emily. The world needs to know this. How can we get you to do a TED talk? That could massively increase your exposure. I hope your mother watched this and does something about it this time (you know what I mean

    Reply

  4. AvatarKristen says

    Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to produce this! People NEED to go vegan if we want to survive. At this point, the level of destruction, if not stopped, will make life unbearable for US in OUR lifetime.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      you are so welcome. and very true. it’s rather incredible, really…especially the deep denial people have.

      Reply

  6. AvatarMarisa Herrera says

    AMAZING video! So thorough, well researched and with a bit of mockery – Loved it! All the information presented in your video is well documented, and yet the environmental/world organizations, industry, governments, and the populous at large ignore it. A selfish and destructive species we are.

    THANK YOU for producing Bite Size Vegan.
    I agree with Kendyra, you need to have a TED talk and be on the various TV talk shows. We need to spread Bite Size Vegan far and wide!

    I just saw the link for nominating a TED speaker posted by Kim Heroy https://speaker-nominations.ted.com/ I’m nominating you, Emily, as well. And sharing this video to my network, as I do the others.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      thank you so much Marisa :) it is terribly frustrating that people don’t see the truth.. all i can do is keep speaking it! Oh and thank you so much for nominating and sharing! i’m honored :)

      Reply

  7. AvatarDaddio7 says

    Look in a mirror, smile, observe your dentation. Yep, you are an omnivore. Just like me, you can’t help it, you were born that way. You must be brave, come out of the closet, and eat a steak. Omnivore pride baby.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      actually our dentation points far more to herbivore than omnivore. tear into the raw hide of gazelle and fell the gazelle without tools and then you can eat your meat. regardless, we have choice not to eat animals and thus not kill them or the planet or take food from the hungry. if we really are “the top of the food chain” we should behave with responsibility.

      Reply

  8. AvatarKim Herøy says

    PHIEW!!! Just finished the Norwegian translation of your video. Crikey that took a while XD U gotta stop talking so fast Emily! (just kidding ^_- )

    Anyway, I added my name at the of the video as the translator and a link to my vegan website if you don’t mind. (www.kimheroy.com)

    Now, good night, sleep tight, and I’ll see you soon!
    -kim

    Reply

  9. AvatarAlex says

    Emily this is incredible!! One of my favourite videos so far, I have already shared it on Facebook and this is a topic coming up in conversations with my family recently so I will show them too.
    Thought I should let you know, at 10m23s there is a little mistake, you accidentally wrote 37,0000 and I think you meant 37 000.
    Keep up the awesome video’s, your content is incredible and I have just recommended you for a ted talk too!! xx

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      thanks so much! so glad to hear that you like it. and thanks for the heads up.

      Reply

  10. AvatarKim Herøy says

    Never mind. Amara replaced the “translated by Kim Herøy” with “Subtitles by the Amara.org community”. I guess personal credit aren’t their thing. XD

    Anyway, for the greater good and all of that. ^_-

    Reply

  11. Avatarseb says

    Love that video.
    So good to have some real, solid content with message worth spreading.

    It does contrast so much compared to all the s*** I saw lately from well known vegans :(

    Actually I think we should do some infographic poster based on this video. I’d totally buy one (and photocopy hundreds others to stick them on butcheries around me)

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      thank you so very much :) i really appreciate it :) and i’ll have to look into that!

      Reply

  12. AvatarThe Vegan Junction says

    Great video! Thank you for covering the environmental aspect in such detail. The irony of so many “environmentalists” gets frustrating, especially because there really is something practical, realistic and effective that we can all be doing to make a substantial difference!

    Reply

  13. AvatarAnna says

    This is a fantastic video! So informative. I think this is really useful for people who claim that they don’t care about animal welfare, but are interested in environmental issues. The benefits of going vegan are boundless! I’m really happy to be able to share so much useful info in a bitesize nugget :) It’s hard to argue with the facts. Keep up the good work, you are doing a great job.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      thanks so much! so happy to be able to provide shareable content with facts to back it up! that’s the whole idea :)

      Reply

  15. AvatarEva says

    Hi there , I am sharing your videos on many places mainly at gatherings. But these datas I am going to share at the upcoming conference here in Paris (maybe stand outside at the building with writings) and at other events held by experts. Because of this conference we have a lot of environmental talks this month. I’m a bit ignorant on the subject so I just put out the numbers and send people to your site. I am vegan by the way. Your channel is the best.
    here is the link to the conference: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-paris-climate-summit-and-un-talks

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      Thank you so much Eva. That would be pretty awesome if you share it there! I so appreciate you sharing it around and that conference looks like a great place to reach people :)

      Reply

  16. AvatarFernanda says

    Hi Emily,
    thank you so much for all the work you are doing. I am vegan myself and I would prefer to present such a crucial information not under “everything wrong with….” – rather I would call it: “Everything right with vegan environmentalism”. It`s easy to point out wrongness and make non-vegans get defensive. Instead focusing on what is right/sustainable about vegan lifestyle helps people to understand what a tremendous impact of saving our resources they have by shifting to vegan life-style. Or how about wording this information like: “do you know the most effective and sustainable actions (not addressed by main-stream media at all) you can take to really save the planet for future generations.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      Thanks for your input Fernanda. I do believe positivity is great and I typically am not negative in my approach (and even note in this video tha it will be more sarcastic). Different styles can grab different people. Definitely keep speaking up!

      Reply

  18. AvatarRichard says

    I love the video but agree that everything wrong with environmentalism isn’t the best angle to present this amazing collection of facts. We want environmentalism to be a good thing for society, we just don’t want the mainstream NGOs and FAOs of the world to dictate the agenda for solutions.

    There isn’t one ‘environmentalism’, different cultures and philosophies have their own environmentalism, including one that includes veganism as the main solution, however I know what you mean. Perhaps it could be ‘why mainstream environmentalism doesn’t work without veganism’ or
    ‘we can’t save the planet and eat our steaks too’.

    that’s my 2 cents, I love your work

    Reply

  19. AvatarAlessandro says

    Hi Emily,

    I just stopped my perpetual donations to Greenpeace. I will be more than happy to donate that few bucks to Nugget Army. This video was really educational, I was already thinking about veganism and environmentalism (it sounded a little bit… weird… for a vegan like me to fight for “sustainable tuna”, what the hell). I still have to admit that some battles (against GMOs and TTIP, for example) are worth to fight. But wait… GMOs target mostly soy and mais (animal food). We need to work around nature limits to feed animals that we eat. This is so stupid.

    Thanks for all you do, i wish i could be as charismatic as you.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick (BiteSizeVegan) says

      Well thank you so much for your kind words! And I don’t know if I’ve ever heard “charismatic” applied to me before ;D

      Reply

  20. AvatarTui Allen says

    So glad to have discovered this power-house woman. You have to ask. Where does she get her energy? It sure ain’t from eating meat.
    I am particularly grateful for how she includes and understands the role of the oceans. They are my own personal greatest concern, living as I do in New Zealand in the middle of the world’s biggest expanse of ocean.

    This country markets itself to the world as a tourist destination that is “clean and green,” while making most of our annual income from exporting the products of animal agriculture. And we have bowled almost every last inch of the country’s native forests to create the farms.

    Those forest were like no other forests on earth. That is because this country rose up out of the sea only 20 million years ago so far away from other land masses that its ecology evolved separately and uniquely, with no land mammals – only insects and birds. What a window to another universe it was – like arriving on a different planet. BUT the first mammal to arrive was mankind and that was the end of all that alien beauty that existed before we came.
    I have posted this same comment on the Youtube version of this video. For some weird reason it has appeared there under my daughter’s online identity. She calls herself Feraliza FeralEyes – (bless her,) so when you see that name on this post you will know it is really me – Tui.

    Reply

  21. Avatarlucie says

    Hi Emily! I’ve noticed that some of the sources you’re put up do not work anymore. Do you think there’s a way you could fix them?

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Barwick says

      Hi Lucie! thank you so much for letting me know. It’s on my very long list of to-dos to go back through the 400ish videos and fix any broken links, errors, etc, and add actual citations to the super old ones that I did before I knew how to work a citation manager :P

      At the moment, I’m putting a lot of time into the foundational elements for being able to bring on volunteers and a structured team so that a lot of these things can eventually be addressed, as I’m not even keeping up with the new content and messages :D If you could please submit which links are broken through the contact form at the bottom of hte website, that would be SO helpful for when I can get started on going back through!

      Another “to do” is an entire site re-design and one thing I’d like is a clear method by which anyone can flag/submit broken links/errors.

      Finally, you may want to check my more recent speeches’ posts here and here as I revisited environmental issues and would have updated sources, though I can’t guarantee they are the ones to which you’re referring.

      Reply

  22. AvatarMichaelann Bradley says

    I apologize if another commenter already brought this up–but here’s what I really want to know after watching your video. I understand that cows (meat and dairy) produce a lot of methane, need a lot of water, etc–but almond milk also needs a lot of water, for example. What I would find more useful than comparing environmental impact of diet v. green trends is a diet v. diet comparison. It feels possible to me that, say, eggs could be more environmentally friendly than, say, almonds. In sum: it’s not like a vegan diet is water-free (or methane-free, etc), so you’re comparing a bit of apples to oranges here. I don’t intend to make you do my research for me :) but if you have happen to have data on that, I’d love to take a look.

    Reply

    • AvatarEmily Moran Barwick says

      I’d look more at the land-usage comparison as that is a direct vegan vs. vegetarian vs meat eater statistic. And you are correct that the water and resource usage isn’t a direct comparison. I’d love to create one, but it’s extremely complex given the infinite varieties of vegan and non-vegan eating habits.

      Still, the most basic principles/concepts are helpful to keep in mind. It can’t help but tae more resources to feed, water, house, etc billions of living beings than it would to just (essentially, but I know not literally) eat what they eat and take out the “middle animal.”

      Now if you’re eating almonds all day every day and only almonds, then yes, you’re using a lot of water. But almonds are not a requirement for being vegan. Veganism only says what (whom) you don’t eat, not what you do. Sorry to not have a more concrete/clear response atm. The variability in dietary practices is simply to vast. However, I do agree that a more direct comparison would be incredibly beneficial. And I’ve not completely given up on attempting at least some version of one. It’s kind of, in a way, like my attempt to find out exactly how many animals we kill. Thank you for your comment and apologies for the delayed response!

      Reply

  23. AvatarSam says

    Great work and near-flawless research, as usual, Emily is trying to do her best to produce factual unbiased inclusive evidence

    Reply

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