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Amphibians have existed for about 300 million years. But, since 1950, they have experienced a pervasive decline. Over one hundred species have gone extinct due to human activities, with one in three remaining amphibian species currently at risk of extinction. Their main threat: habitat loss. And when it comes to habitat loss, according to the United Nations, the livestock industry is the largest user of land on the planet and the leading driver of deforestation. Already the loss of biodiversity has been so severe that biologists classify our time as the Sixth Mass Extinction in Earth’s evolutionary history, being driven entirely by humans and our activities. Remember, every species that vanishes had millions of years of unique evolutionary history, never to be repeated. And, although it could seem irrelevant to some that species are going extinct, remember that our environment works as a whole and we humans are not as independent of it as we sometimes like to think. Of course, while natural habitats and other species have essentially been in free-fall, since 1950, our human population has rapidly tripled from 2.5 billion to 7.6 billion people. With this rapid increase in our population has come a corresponding explosion in the demand for environmentally devastating animal foods, the mass production of which (as alluded to above) weighs immensely in driving every major environmental crisis we now face — including climate change, water pollution and water depletion, land use, deforestation, and species extinctions. Unfortunately, there is a profound lack of awareness of the issue. Abstaining from animal foods is one of the most impactful positive actions you can take as an individual, both to help restore our environment, protect what’s left of the planet’s biodiversity and (of course) to withdraw your support for the completely unnecessary exploitation and death inflicted upon countless billions of sentient animals every year. Please consider the profound implications of your food choices, do whatever you can to help raise awareness of these issues, and go vegan. |