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Last week was Albert Einstein’s birthday. When he turned 74, while attending a fundraising luncheon in his honor, he was offered roast beef, which he declined saying, “This is for lions”. The father of modern physics also said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” (Letter from Einstein to Harmann Huth, December 27, 1930). What a prophetic statement. When he said it, we weren’t facing the existential environmental hazards from animal agriculture as we are today, including the following: • Animal agriculture is responsible for more human-caused greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector combined. • Scientists have confidently concluded that we have already entered the 6th mass extinction as a result of human activities, with livestock being the largest planetary user of land and destroyer of natural habitats. • If current fishing trends continue, scientists warn we will see a virtual total collapse of all ocean fisheries by 2048. The good news is that, unlike so many other issues, we actually have the power as individuals to do something about this. We can simply stop consuming animal products in our personal lives by going vegan. In addition to the urgent environmental need for such a shift, going vegan is also very healthy and withdraws our participation from the unnecessary and horrific harm and mass killing currently imposed on countless billions of vulnerable animals. There has never been a better or more important time to go vegan. |