Climate change is the result of overheating of our Planet by the accumulation of manmade greenhouse gasses (GHG) in our living and breathing atmosphere. A look at the facts overwhelmingly points to one culprit – our food.
According to the UN FAO's 2006 report, animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.
But according to a WorldWatch 2009 report, animal agriculture is responsible for at least 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas with 296X the global warming potential of CO2.
But according to a peer-reviewed report from climatehealers.org, the impact of eliminating animal agriculture would mean at least an 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Estimates are GHG emissions can be reduced by 50% – 80%, almost overnight, by switching to a vegan diet. Unfortunately, mitigating climate change by a revolution in the way people eat has been largely ignored. Based upon their successes from using diet-therapy for thousands of their patients over the past half century, the McDougalls offer practical ways for us as individuals to positively impact GHG emissions by transitioning to planet-saving foods. Our goal is a worldwide revolution to adopt historically traditional eating patterns.
Robert Goodland, PhD, the first ecologist hired by the World Bank of the United Nations, warned the people attending the September 2013 McDougall Weekend that the time to act is now. This warning came nearly a decade ago. What are we waiting for?
See the entire lecture by Dr. Goodland.
Consuming foods high on the food chain, specifically animal products, is wasteful. The same acre of land produces 17 times more calories growing potatoes compared to beef.
Farming animal-based foods is fossil fuel intensive. Growing, manufacturing, and transporting plant-based foods produces relatively more and better-quality food for less energy, producing fewer molecules of planet-warming CO2. Cattle and sheep cause additional damage by producing a far more powerful GHG, methane, by intestinal rumination.
In 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, published a highly influential, nearly 400-page report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, finding that livestock’s contribution to GHG production to be nearly 18% of the total, while all transportation (buses, train, cars, planes, etc.) amounts to less than 14%. By including several additional factors, those underestimated by the FAO report, the WorldWatch Institute concluded three years later that livestock actually accounts for more than 51% of the GHG produced annually.
Please watch the Protein Mastermind webinar series with Dr. McDougall for a compelling look at the dangerous impact this nutrient has on our personal health as well as the climate.
Predictions made by 21st century scientists are that stopping the use of fossil fuels, although essential, is no longer enough to make the Planet sufficiently whole to sustain life. Many of these well-informed experts have also concluded that a global shift to plant-based dietary patterns is required for any hope. This target diet is not radical or new. A simple U-turn, back to traditional diets is the change in eating patterns we are proposing.
Don’t miss the all-encompassing Potato Mastermind webinar series with Dr. McDougall covering everything you need to know about this important starch and how it can help save humanity.
This truth is simple and is, therefore, easy to explain. You must eat to live. But the choice of what you eat is yours. There is an individual, specific diet that best supports the health, function, and longevity of each and every animal. The proper diet for human beings is based on starches. The more rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans you eat, the trimmer and healthier you will be—and with those same food choices you will help save the planet Earth too.
The McDougall Program has held nothing back. The pages that follow contain all of the information you need to successfully change your diet and lifestyle in order to quickly regain control of your health and appearance. The Free McDougall Program puts recovery from chronic disease and attainment of excellent health within everyone’s reach.
